Day 41: Women's Showers

[roseoverture]

Utena was very, very glad that the patients were finally being allowed to go to the showers. Even for a girl more used to sweating than many in her gender, two days without a shower was definitely enough to make her feel stickier and stinkier than she preferred to be. Especially after all the running around and tearing apart of rooms she, Celes and

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[kagurazuki]

Alita's suggestive smile was enough to cause a blush to rise in Kagura's cheeks. There were plenty of zodiacs from the Sohma family who had chosen to be with others of the same gender. With their specific problem, it made some things a lot easier, so it didn't phase Kagura, but the way she talked so openly about their relationship... boy or girl, it would've still made her blush.

"Ah..n... I-I'm happy for you Alita-hime," she said honestly. It was kind of impressive how well Alita was able to adapt, while Kagura still felt like she was floundering at the smallest things.

"Ah... w-well... little things. Going to school and... visiting my family I guess. Kyo-kun..." she trailed off. "I miss all the people back home. Sometimes though, I'm afraid they don't miss me at all." There were a million reasons why she knew Kyo wouldn't love her back, but it didn't mean she wouldn't miss him when he was gone. It was just... a very lonely sort of missing. It wasn't until Bridget told her things that... that she was nice or... that she was pretty that... that feeling started to go away, just a tiny bit.

[himetsuru]

Falis reached over to put her hand on Kagura's cheek.

"Don't you ever think they don't miss you," she said, completely unabashed about their nakedness or closeness.

[kagurazuki]

Kagura was pretty sure Kyo would never ever miss her, no matter how long she was gone, but she chose not to say so. She flinched ever so slightly when Alita touched her cheek; she'd seen Akito do the same thing to Yuki before, but this was different somehow. It wasn't easy to meet Alita's eyes, but there were few other places to look without making things even more awkward.

"Mm... I... I will try to remember that Alita-hime," she squeaked.

[himetsuru]

"Don't try to - do so," Falis told the girl. "Family is family and no matter how much you all might like each other or not, you're still fucking family and need each other."

Taking her hand back, something flashed in Falis' eyes for a moment, something that could have been sorrow if one believed the princess was capable of it. She turned back into the spray. "Hey, help me with my hair and tell me why you've got such issues with being touched."

[kagurazuki]

Kagura complied without even thinking about it. She nodded shyly to all orders before going to work. Alita's hair was much longer than hers and must require a lot more care. Carefully, she tried to make sure it was all falling properly and free of any big tangles before she got shampoo from the dispenser.

"It's not... that is..." she said with some hesitation as she started working the mixture into Alita's hair. "Where I come from, it's... kind of disrespectful to touch someone's face I guess... I'm not really used to it, that's all." She couldn't very well tell Alita about Akito or that there might be more to it than that, or the curse, or any of those awful dark secrets. If people found out about them, who knew what might happen?

"You have really pretty hair Alita-hime," she added, hoping the subject could be changed.

[himetsuru]

"It's not just your face, but when anyone touches you, like you're expecting to get hurt or something," Falis responded, her eyes falling shut as Kagura started working on her hair. As annoying as the princess' hair was, it sure felt nice to have someone else playing with it, brushing it or, in this case, washing it.

"But I'll try to keep that in mind and shit when I'm around you. No promises, though, since it's just kind of automatic that when i want to touch something, i fucking touch it."

She shrugged and also started on her hair. She hadn't had a shower since her fight with Ami; she wondered if there were clumps of dried blood in the mass of hair and what Kagura would do if she came across it.

"Eh. Thanks. It's okay. Gets in the way of fighting, though if I don't have it pulled back properly," she responded. "Too fucking long."

[kagurazuki]

Alita was way better at guessing than Kagura wanted to admit. Akito didn't like any of the Sohma women so far as she could tell. And there'd been enough injuries to the zodiac members for her to feel a decent amount of fear.

"That's kind of... a long story," she said, explaining in an off-hand sort of way. She couldn't say much more than that without worrying about slipping and mentioning the wrong thing.

She worked the shampoo all the way through, making sure to get as much of it as she could. "If it's in the way, maybe you should cut it," she offered. It would be really sad, but if Alita didn't like it, then she didn't have to keep it, did she? "Or... or does your girlfriend like it that way? I um... I heard that most people like long hair on girls..."

There'd been times she'd tried growing hers out past her usual length, but then it would snag or tangle and she'd get so frustrated... it was just a lot easier to keep it at just the right length. But maybe boys did like longer hair on girls. Tohru's hair was longer than hers and Kyo liked her best. But then Ayame was a boy who kept his hair very long too. And there were lots of people who liked him.

[himetsuru]

"I've got time, Kagura," Falis replied, but she wasn't going to push the issue.

"Mm. I've thought about it, but I can't; it's not mine," she replied automatically, not realizing what she'd just said. "I know Hokuto likes it long, though, I don't see why hair length has anything to do with liking someone."

[kagurazuki]

"Mm.... maybe another time," she said, stepping away from Alita now that she'd thoroughly scrubbed the girl's hair. She got another handful of shampoo and started working it into her own plain, dark brown hair. It wasn't that she didn't like Alita, or think she was trustworthy, but... she definitely didn't want anything to happen to her either.

"It's not yours?" she said, suddenly confused. She hadn't felt any extensions when she'd shampooed it. So what exactly did she mean?

"Er... w-well, of course it does matter. Some people like girls with long hair and others like short hair. And... wouldn't you want to be the kind of person that... the one you like would want? If it would make them happier?" Honestly, she'd all but given up on that, but it was hard to completely let go. Maybe she should cut it short; that was the trend, wasn't it?

[himetsuru]

Shit. Now how was she going to get out of this? She couldn't exactly tell Kagura that the princess' body wasn't her real one and so the hair really didn't belong to her, but to the princess. "Oh, I'm royalty, so hair length is a status thing; the longer your hair is, the more standing you have in Forland society." This was one of the reasons Falis was glad she was really Grandalian and not Forland, though she did love the kingdom; the hair thing was kind of stupid.

"No, it doesn't matter," Falis responded, giving Kagura a look. "You don't change yourself to be what you think someone else wants. You fucking find someone that likes you for who you are. Fuck the rest."

[kagurazuki]

Oh! So her hair had to be long for the sake of her kingdom. That made sense. Kagura nodded slowly before washing the shampoo from her hair. Royalty had plenty of rules she didn't understand, just like Alita didn't understand all of the customs of where Kagura was from.

When Alita gave her a look and what sounded almost like a lecture, she was a bit taken aback. Didn't most people want to change, even a little, if they liked someone? "Oh..." she said quietly.

[himetsuru]

"Yeah. What good is it to change who you are to make someone else happy?" Falis didn't understand that at all. "The point is to make yourself happy first. If you aren't happy, ain't nobody else gonna be happy with you."

She sighed. "Eh. Doesn't your boyfriend like you for who you are?"

[kagurazuki]

It was all well and fine to say things like that, but applying them was another matter completely. Besides, she'd tried to tell herself that being with Kyo would make her happy, ever since the incident when they were still children, but in the end, had it done any good at all?

Kagura stared at the faucet for a long while, looking intently at the knobs and letting the water soak her hair. "I... am not the girl he is in love with," she said softly, shaking her head. It'd taken ages, but she'd finally said it out loud. Still, she wasn't sure if it made her feel better or worse to admit it.

[himetsuru]

That caused Falis to raise an eyebrow and turn toward Kagura. Hadn't the girl said her and her boyfriend were going to get married and all that shit?

"Huh. Then why is he your boyfriend?"

[kagurazuki]

"W-well... that is..." she replied nervously. She'd said that much already, shouldn't she just tell Alita the truth? "That was decided a long time ago. But... he's found someone else since and..."

It was a good thing they were in the showers; it made it much harder to tell if the water running down her cheeks was just from the showerhead or the beginnings of tears. "Even though she doesn't know him like I do... it's already as if I don't exist in his world."

[himetsuru]

Well now Falis was caught back in the position of knowing someone needed comfort and not exactly knowing how to give it. She fucking sucked at this thing, and she didn't want to make Kagura cry. Though she was getting the sense that the girl already was a little. Shit.

"Then he's not the guy for you," she said after a moment, her voice serious and barely heard above the running water. "Find someone who's world you do fucking exist in. People change, Kagura, on their own. They find new people and move on. We all do." She remembered something she'd once heard her mother say to her back when she was little. Hopefully, she wouldn't fuck it up; that had been a long time ago.

"People are like the stars. They start out in one place, with a group of other stars, shining for all to see. They think they're happy there being part of all that and the picture it creates, but eventually a star finds someone else, someone they have to be with and that when they grow a tail and swim through the skies to be with that one." She paused and frowned. "Okay, I think I fucked that story up. Damnit."