Day 44: Women's Showers (2nd Shift)

[hajike_tobiume]

The sting of the water on Momo's wounds reminded her exactly where each and every burn was. Between that and the clear plastic wrapping the nurse placed around the long cut up her arm to her shoulder, she decided as little time in the actual spray would be wise. Sitting on a stool out of the direct stream, she went about scrubbing the grit and

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[thatdamnedninja]

"I'm going to turn myself into a radish," Yuffie told her nurse.

"With the water, dear?"

"No, with the gum in your pocket."

"Hanna, I don't have any gum in my pocket."

"You totally do."

And so the conversation went on. Really, it was the way it had to be; if Plucky suspected that something was wrong, she'd get edgy. An edgy Plucky meant an extra vigilant Plucky, and that meant even tighter surveillance than normal. Stupid closed environment making it impossible to do anything… It made Yuffie itch to act out, when all she really wanted for once was a bit of peace.

Once she'd shucked her clothes and collected her wash towel, she found herself a good looking nozzle and turned the water as high as she dared. Stepping into it with a soft hiss between her teeth, the little ninja tipped her head back under the spray. Biting her tongue, she ran light, calloused fingers across her skin; her abdomen was smooth, without a trace of… last night… to mar it. No doubt her back was the same way.

Good. Yuffie was a fighter and a daredevil, but disfigurement, permanent or otherwise, just wasn't her thing. It was a matter of principle; you let your enemy close enough to mark you, and then what? She shook her head, moving her hands up to her shoulders to rub at them. The water was almost hot enough to hurt, but it was doing wonders to sooth the screaming tension in her muscles and sear away strange thoughts.

[For Cissnei]

[tofindherwings]

The shift from night to day had been rather jarring to Cissnei, despite the warnings that she'd received. It had left her disoriented for a good few moments, wondering where she was and where Tseng was and why she wasn't out searching for Zack before the clinical white of the room had brought it flooding back. Right. Insane asylum, other worlds, Reno and Rude being very surprised to see her.

It made no more sense to her now than it had done the previous day.

She'd managed to sleep through breakfast apparently, but the nurse was adamant that a nice warm shower would be just lovely wouldn't it? Cissnei tuned her out, focussed instead on thinking of how many ways she knew to kill the woman in under ten seconds without being armed.

She'd lost any kind of shyness about her body years and years ago so she stripped off without any hesitation and went to stand underneath one of the shower heads, letting the hot water fall onto her skin and hair. She looked sideways at the girl she was next to. About her age, toned. She looked tough.

"I hope you don't mind me standing here," she said, not actually caring if the other woman minded and with no intention of moving, but it was as good a way to start a conversation as anything.

[thatdamnedninja]

Gonna take this slow, Yuffie decided, basking in the warmth. She closed her eyes. Evildoers, be warned! Amidst the slew of terror and the rain of blood, something bright still shines! It is I--

Somebody was coming over. Sloshing footsteps against wet tile, sure and confident. Hmm… The ninja tilted her head just slightly, cracking one eye open. Nope, not somebody she recognized; her height, her age, seemed capable and not immediately crazy. Note keywords. Yuffie opened her other eye, blinked the water off her lashes, and nonchalantly returned most of her attention to massaging the ache out of her shoulders.

"If I did, you'd know about it," she responded lazily. "Hi. Mind the soap, I think they replaced it with superglue when nobody was looking."

[tofindherwings]

Well, that was good to know. Someone who at least believed that they were capable as a fighter. It was probably better not to take the chance that she was bluffing, at least not until Cissnei was certain. "I'll bear that in mind," she replied, reaching to take some of the soap into her hands and begin to rub it into her hair. She had to agree with the other woman; it wasn't brilliant quality.

"I'm called Cissnei," she said after a moment, giving the other girl a small smile.

[thatdamnedninja]

The soap really was pretty terrible, but it beat bathing in a rain barrel. Cold streams, too. Those sucked! Yuffie could whine and complain with the best of them, especially to keep up appearances, but beneath all that there was a tacit appreciation for basic pleasures. Now, hot springs, on the other hand…

Giving herself a little shake, the girl dropped her hands and flexed her fingers. Her racing thoughts had eased, bordering on coherent and three shades away from hysteria rather than hairsbreadth. Still couldn't… didn't want… Gawd, this was hopeless. She was horribly, cruelly good at getting over things, but last night was winding around her heart again and again.

Maybe that was why it took her a moment to realize that the name rang a bell. "… Cissnei," Yuffie repeated. "Ci… Oh. Oh. Cissnei the Turk, right?" They really were like weeds, weren't they? Great. Just what she needed! Not that it was wholly a bad thing… was it? Yuffie was no fan of ShinRa (ha ha ha never in a million years, no matter what that scumbag of an ex-president did or said), but the Turks had their uses. Reno, for instance, made great target practice.

And… Alright, as much as it pained her to admit it, maybe there was something else in there, too. It was kind of nice to have people from Gaia around, people who weren't crazy psycho bug-people made out of bits of alien and Sephiroth. Yuffie's eyes darkened at the thought of him, that curdling mix of nerves, fury and loathing sparking in her veins, before she pushed it back. Back down the trap-door. Out, to trickle down the drain with the water. The smirk she flashed was convincing enough to fool anybody who didn't know her well. "I'm Yuffie, great ninja extraordinaire and connoisseur of justice. We spoke on the bulletin board."

[tofindherwings]

She seemed distracted by something which left Cissnei free to step beneath the spray and let the shower wash out her hair. She blinked the water out of her eyes and looked back at her companion. Hm, so she'd been paying attention to the bulletin when Cissnei had left her name. That was the only explanation. Unless she knew Reno and Rude as well and had spoken to them yesterday. "Yes, that's me," Cissnei replied with a small smile. "Although I'm told that I'm a little behind the times by Reno and Rude." And that was extremely frustrating. She didn't like the thought of them knowing more about what had happened than she did, or at least, not about what had happened to her and Zack.

The name that the other woman gave did jog her memory though, in a couple of ways. She recognised the name from the bulletin of course, but she also knew that she'd heard it from somewhere before. Maybe paperwork.

"I remember," she replied with a nod, not giving away her thoughts. "Rude was being over-protective."

[thatdamnedninja]

"A little? Try a lot." Tongue between her teeth, Yuffie leaned out of the spray just long enough to lather her hair up with a great big blob of shampoo. It was cold and slimy and slid down her neck, bubbles foaming between her fingers. She squinted through the suds. "Did they tell ya anything?"

About the multiple near-apocalypses, the 'out with a bang and a whimper' fall of ShinRa? About how the new AVALANCHE was different than the ones that'd come before? Yuffie still remembered hating those guys; she remembered sabotaging them at every chance she got, working hard to save her Wutai from people who had no right to be there, messing everything up even more.

Finger combing through her hair, Yuffie brought herself back under the water, vaguely worrying thoughts about great big gaping holes in space/time dancing a waltz across her mind. Not that there wasn't a great big hole already there, anyway. Yeah. Good job, Landel, you son of a maggot-infested dragon corpse.

"Makes a change." She rolled her eyes. Then closed them, because shampoo burned. "Usually he's just being bitchy."

[tofindherwings]

"Yes, it seems like a missed a lot." Rude seemed a little hurt by the fact that she apparently wasn't there. She had to wonder about exactly what had happened to make her leave. Zack... well, maybe if he hadn't... Uh, she didn't want to think about that now. She hadn't seen it so it didn't feel real to her. He was still alive from what she remembered. "They told me a few things, bits of what I'd missed. A little about you and the new AVALANCHE." She flashed the other woman a brief grin at that. AVALANCHE had been a real pain to fight and if Yuffie had been part of the original, then Cissnei would have had no problem with killing her now.

She laughed softly at her words about Rude. "He isn't so bad. He doesn't need to be protective. I'm perfectly capable."

[thatdamnedninja]

"Not sure if 'missed a lot' is exactly the right phrase," Yuffie responded, trailing off to scrub the suds out of her hair. Times like this, she really was grateful that it was so short. How the hell had Tifa managed, with that weird pony tail thing of hers going right down to her knees? She snorted. "Right. Bet they skipped out on all the good bits." Like the times AVALANCHE had kicked their butts, easy as 1-2-3.

She stepped back again, this time for conditioner. The idea of Rude being 'not so bad' didn't compute, so it went ignored. Thoroughly. Well, except for a wrinkle of the nose. "Did they fill you in on the weird truce thing we've got going on right now, then?" She asked.

[tofindherwings]

"It seems like I missed a lot," Cissnei replied with a faint smile of amusement. Things had begun and she apparently hadn't been there to see the conclusion. That was a little galling. Maybe things had been bad, but she'd never been one to shy from the difficult things. "I get the impression that your idea of the good bits and theirs would be rather different," she added, stepping back underneath the spray to wash the shampoo out of her hair. Yuffie was an interesting character though, she had to admit.

She nodded in response to the question, stifling a laugh at Yuffie's expression. "Something about that, yes. I'm sure that I can hold to it as well." Unless Tseng or Veld showed up and decided otherwise.

[thatdamnedninja]

Who wouldn't agree that saving the world had been a good thing? Except for the bad guys. They didn't count, though, since they were a) the instigators and b) a bunch of brainless retards. "Maaaaybe," she replied, faux-thoughtfully. "Not that I care what they think; they tried to do their job, we just did ours better. Win-win, in the end." In a (very, very) loose matter of speaking.

The gloop on her hands was cold and sticky, clinging between her fingers. Squeezing her hands together, Yuffie twirled back under her showerhead. Speaking of win-win… She glanced sidelong at Cissnei. "That'd be real cool of you," she said. "We've got a common enemy here, so I'd really rather not waste my time kicking your ass."

Yuffie didn't have any doubts that the Turks could and would turn on her, if it came to it. She wasn't worried; three on one would be a bit of a pain, but playing the environment to ones advantage was a ninja speciality. Humming tunelessly under her breath, she dipped her head forward to rinse out the conditioner.

[tofindherwings]

"Mmm, I'm sure," Cissnei replied with a smile, leaning back against the cool tile of the shower wall as she regarded her companion with interest. "I can't really give an accurate assessment without knowing what happened later on for certain and why I wasn't around for it." All she knew was that her mission had failed and that something bad had happened later. It wasn't exactly a lot to go on.

Her lips quirked when Yuffie suggested kicking her ass. She would be the first to admit that someone her size could be particularly dangerous, but Cissnei also knew that she was a brilliant combatant herself. She'd trained for most of her life after all. "I think there are plenty of things here to focus on killing before turning on other patients. I'll be glad if I get a weapon."