Day 55: Male Showers

[lighthearted]

The conversation that Sora had had with Sam had definitely made all of the cleaning far more bearable. It wasn't even that they had talked about anything that groundbreaking, but the man had been kind to him and it had given him something else to focus on. All in all, being forced to clean hadn't been as bad as he'd expected.

And now that it was over, it sounded like it was time to go to the showers. That was for the best, seeing how cleaning actually ended up making you kind of dirty.

More than that, Sora was lucky enough to be one of the first people who was led into the showers. He considered asking the soldier who was escorting him about the pins for his hat, but in the end it made more sense to wait until he was getting dressed again.

Changing out of his clothes, new as they were, wasn't a problem; his own outfit that he wore back home was far more complicated, after all, and so he had the buttons undone and the belt removed in seconds.

After that, Sora quickly moved toward the back of the shower area, turned on the water, waited for it to heat up, and then stepped under the spray. He'd learned some time ago that trying to talk in the showers usually didn't work so well; all the running water was too loud and he was too awkward, even if he'd gotten much better about it over time.

It was still better to just get it over with and then head out into the Sun Room, and so once he was decently clean he turned off the water and headed out to get changed again.

[To here.]

Comments

[livesbyinstinct.livejournal.com]

Well, the guy was up five on the weirdness scale. What did he do, shower with his hat on? And if the he seriously thought he was going out with his shirt buttons looking like they were, the weirdo had another thing coming.

"Not with your shirt looking like that you're not," he said, shaking his head as he picked up his own shirt, fitting his arms through the sleeves. "Look, I don't know what kind of place you're from, but the buttons are supposed to be aligned—not like... like that. It makes you look freakin' ridiculous." And it did. Kiba wasn't one for dress codes, but he did believe in looking good, even if his sense of style was sometimes suspect.

Figuring he was going to receive some sort of dumbfounded look in response, he began buttoning up his own shirt, threading the buttons through the openings deliberately slower than usual. He wasn't about to play babysitter and do up the other guy's for him, that's for sure. "You might as well start over. Just make sure to line up everything straight, then work your way up from the bottom."

He finished quickly enough, eying the beret lying on the floor. Now that was ugly as sin. It was almost a tragedy in itself to put it on. He's have to find some way to conveniently ditch it. "Just who are you, anyway?" he asked, beret now in hand. "You new or something?"

[moarnomsplz]

This was a sensible suggestion for dealing with the buttons, and after observing the human at the task, Ax managed to put them all through the correct holes. He also removed the head covering and wrung as much water out of it as he could before replacing it.

"I am called Ax," he said, which had the advantages of being true, not distractingly difficult to pronounce with a human mouth, and, unlike his full name, not blatantly Andalite. "I arrived here..." He was forced to pause, because he was not certain of the exact passage of time, an ability he had not lost before in human morph. It was disconcerting. He put the thought aside, and continued, "Approximately, prox-ih-mit-lee, two of your hours ago. And I come from a place where we do not follow strange rituals with clothing-ing."

It appeared to be part of this particular ritual to exit the room as quickly as possible, so Ax nodded at the human to indicate he intended to complete their conversation. He had long since become very good at that gesture. "You have been helpful. What is your name?"

[livesbyinstinct.livejournal.com]

"Came in with the new management, huh?" He bit off a sarcastic laugh. "Well, good for you." He hoped this Ax would have his head a bit more screwed before someone chewed it off for him. He still wasn't sure how to take the claims of people being from another world—it sounded completely bullshit and backwards regardless of whether or not it was true—but he head heard enough to shrug it off without much comment, and tried to disregard Ax's bizarre wording.

He put on the beret, twisting it around until it felt comfortable. Such an ugly, worthless piece of crap.

"And it's Kiba, Inuzuka Kiba," he said, not one for saying much in the way of 'you're welcome.' His eyes then shot towards the door. Damn bastards. He could smell them waiting outside. Taking a few sauntering steps towards the exit, he lifted up a hand in a goodbye gesture. "See ya. Try not to stick out too much. If you don't know what the hell you're doing, just watch someone else—one of the quiet ones—and do what they do."

He chuckled. Wouldn't want him copying a loudmouth, after all.

[moarnomsplz]

Ax nodded again, this time to acknowledge the farewell, and could not help but repeat, quietly, "Inu-zu-kah. That is sound advice," he added. It was the approach he had already settled on, in fact, and so was obviously a good strategy.

The armed human from before looked into the tiled room then, and told Ax to 'get a move on,' which was clear enough from context. "I will see you, too," he told Kiba, and resigned himself to following the adult human around some more.

[to here]