Day 62: Men's Showers (4th Shift)

[forsworn]

This whole day had been quiet so far, and Kratos rather liked it that way. Aside from a mandatory therapy session, he had not been forced into talking with someone he didn't know under the pretense of making friends, nor had he been conversely accosted. There was still a report that he needed to give, if Sora would actually be around the next day for him to give it, but that was different. Reports and things of a more business-like nature agreed with him where small talk did not.

He was the first one into the showers for perhaps the first time, which meant that the often sought-after corner shower was now his for the taking. Kratos had no problem with communal showers, thanks to his time in the military, but the corner shower had this aura about it, this sort of vibe that clearly stated, "Do not bother me"--exactly what he was looking for, on a day where he'd enjoyed mostly peace and quiet.

Turning the water on, he waited for a few seconds under the spray to thoroughly soak his hair before reaching for the shampoo.

[OLD MAN CLUB MEETING NOW IN SESSION]

Comments

[osoreirimasu]

[Look at those aaaaaaaaaaabbbssssss aka hi Kratos ]

After taking a quiet lunch, Japan was more than ready for the showers. He would have preferred a soak afterwards, to help ease the tension in his back and the nervous energy running through him, but he supposed in a foreign hospital, the lack of common bath customs was to be expected. America simply hadn't learned to appreciate the recuperative powers of an hour-long soak yet. Perhaps one day, when the nation was older and had more old wounds to rest, his people would come to understand it. As it was, Japan was just happy they allowed them to bathe on a semi-regular schedule. He would have preferred a bath everyday, at the very least every other day, but he would take what he could get.

It was a sad thing when a Nation had to "make due," but Japan tried to remind himself that this was just a setback. A temporary one. Once he was able to find Prussia, America and England, he was sure the three of them could figure something out. Four Nations together could do anything, right? Certainly there were fewer of them than before, but that just meant the others were working to get them out, right?

....Right?

Japan sighed as he stepped up to one of the only showers left open. It didn't take him long to settle into the familiar routine of communal bathing. Sentou were the best places to deepen one's relations with the neighborhood and this was a wonderful opportunity to talk to people. Sadly, it seemed most of the others in here didn't seem as enthusiastic as Japan and were trying to hide away as if the baths were a shameful place. Strange.

A glance to the side and Japan froze. Those. Abs.

He knew them.

His side glance snapped up from his neighbor's perfectly sculpted (the best character designers worked on that) abs and up to his face. Oh. Wonderful. It would...be him. Wait, no, this was wonderful. Maybe in the space of a shared bath they could come to understand each other better! Japan perked up at that thought and tried to be as friendly as he could manage, which meant he actually looked at Kratos as he spoke. "Good afternoon, Aurion-san. I hope it is not a bother that I have taken this space?"

[forsworn]

Honda might have been happy to see him, but Kratos could not say with complete honesty that the feeling was mutual. Even though no one else had witnessed the...he couldn't even bring himself to name it. The unmentionable. Even though no one else had seen it, he was still a bit sore about the whole affair and it showed.

As he worked some shampoo through his hair, he wondered if there would be any consequences for telling someone flat out that he did consider it a bother. It would be the honest thing to do, actually. The one problem, he realized as he tried to glance around discretely, was that there were no other open showers. It was one thing to tell someone to bugger off (albeit politely); it was another to make that person wait for another shower head when there was so clearly one open. The second left room for a spectacle, which Kratos wanted even less than Honda's company.

...He could always just refuse to talk. That was easy enough to do; it also had the added benefit of communicating his feelings without him having to actually admit to them.

"It isn't." It is.

[osoreirimasu]

"Ah...." Oh. "Thank....you....." That was a decidedly different greeting than the last time they had met. Then again, the last time they met, Japan hadn't somehow or another gotten Kratos to make a paper mustache under the guise of it being a military strategy. Well, to be frank, it had been a military strategy, just not a very good one; not that Romano had thought it through before putting it into action against Germany. Japan dropped his gaze to the tiled floor and quickly dunked his head under the stream of water as he turned the knob.

It was ice cold at first and he bit back a shriek at the shock of it. It was enough to wake him up, however, and as the water grew warmer, he held his breath, staying under it as long as possible. Under the water, not only was he hidden so Kratos couldn't see the depression in his eyes at realizing he had royally messed up their working relationship, but it also kept him from staring at Kratos and the fact that he was exactly as drawn in the character profiles. Of course, that was to be expected, seeing how he was Kratos Aurion, but....still.

Ugh. Why did this make him feel so sick?

...Wait.

Japan stepped back suddenly, breathing in deeply and clutching his chest. Right. Breathing. Breathing was a thing he needed to do. Breathing and not thinking about how he should pay a visit to Namco when he returned (if he returned) to congratulate them on their designs - these were things he needed to do. Turning his face away, he tried to go about the ritual of showering with minimal conversation in order to put Kratos at ease, but the atmosphere was so thick that it was starting to feel like real pressure against his temples. "...Ah...Aurion-san....? If I may....? I apologize for the other day. I realize it must have been an uncomfortable experience, and I regret putting you through such a thing."

[forsworn]

In stark contrast to his greeting, Honda sounded quite deflated in his response, which meant that he'd been a little more blatant than he'd meant to be--or that he'd tried to deceive himself into being. For a second, Kratos actually felt something like guilt for being so short with the man, but that was soon overcome by his relief that his shower could now proceed as he had intended it to be: undisturbed.

With his hair properly shampooed, he stepped back under the spray, carefully working through all of the knots and tangles as he rinsed out the shampoo. With his attention thus diverted as well as the roar of water in his ears, it followed, then, that he missed most of Honda's apology:

'...realize it must have been...' Realizing that he was being spoken to, Kratos leaned out of the shower and pushed his hair out of his face with a quick sweep hand, shaking his head a bit (and sending a few water drops flying artfully through the air) to get a few remaining rogue strands out of the way so that he could hear and see properly. '...through such a thing.'

He blinked and frowned lightly at Japan. "Pardon?" So much for refusing to speak, but he could tell that this wasn't an attempt to make small talk, but rather something that he should actually acknowledge.

[osoreirimasu]

Did that really just happen? As Japan watched, Kratos really leaned out of the shower and swept his hair back with a toss of his head, causing the light to catch the falling water droplets, making them sparkle. Did he really just...sparkle?

.....

The dialogue box popped up next to his head as he froze in place, looking at Kratos as if he were an illusion. A hallucination. This sort of thing simply didn't happen in real life and yet it had. It had really happened. Kratos Aurion had tossed his hair back and sparkled. This.... This was...

The dialogue box changed and Japan dropped the cloth he was holding.

ktkr

He wished he had his camera for this. He'd just have to go back to his room and draw it so he never forgot this moment happened, not that he could, because this was simply too strange to forget, but--

"A-ah?" Oh, right. Talking. It took a moment for his brain to reboot from the blue screen of death it had just experienced, but eventually it kick-started and Japan shook his head, slapping himself lightly on the cheek. He had to be more attentive! Kratos was talking to him and this was the only moment he likely had to apologize before the man stopped talking to him altogether. The slap caused the dialogue box to blink out and he bowed from the waist, hands folded in his lap.

"I apologize for my actions the other day if they caused you any undue irritation or unpleasant feelings. It was a regrettable thing that as a Nation, I was unable to put aside my nostalgia to consider the uncomfortable position I placed Aurion-san in." He stood up, eyes cast to the side, head lowered in shame. "...Please forgive me for interrupting your shower. I shall let you finish in peace."

Then he turned back to his shower head, determined to try and salvage what he could of the hour.

[forsworn]

He was expecting Honda to repeat himself as soon as he'd asked for clarification. He was not expecting a brief staring contest followed by Honda dropping his towel out of...what? Shock? Kratos' eyes followed the towel down; he twitched minutely when it hit the ground.

Why did every conversation with this man, regardless of shape or form, always have to be so strange? In his opinion, he had never done anything dramatic enough to inspire any of the things that Honda seemed to enjoy gracing him with, such as paper mustaches disguised as military strategy and now awestruck looks that hinted at some kind of perverse wish fulfillment. It made him feel self-conscious, as all attention usually did, except unlike usual, he couldn't identify the reason why Honda could occasionally seem so enamored of him.

...enamored.

Wait.

Enamored.

Oh. No.

Suddenly, Kratos wanted nothing more than to finish his shower as quickly as possible. "It's fine," he said mechanically, looking up again as, of course, Honda looked aside. This situation was not unknown to him; he had always managed to attract unhealthy amounts of admirers, male and female alike. That didn't mean that he was comfortable with it, though. That didn't mean he wanted it. "Your apology is appreciated."

He turned back slowly to face the shower head and reached for the soap, trying his hardest to keep his eyes on the tile in front of him.

[osoreirimasu]

Well, this was...awkward. Japan could tell the atmosphere between them had changed, becoming heavy and full of thorns and tangibly uncomfortable - sort of like when England offered his cooking and Japan didn't know how to tastefully turn him down without offending him. But this, being Kratos, was an entirely different situation. And it wasn't even one he could use canon to help him diffuse because it wasn't as if someone like him had existed in Kratos' canon. Sure, there were those who had admired him, but none who had known him backwards and forwards like Japan did, and none who could potentially shatter the poor man's world if the wrong words happened to slip out.

This sensation....He is definitely going to avoid you from now on. You must do something to set it right!

"Yes, but what...." he murmured to himself. Japan was simply grateful that the sound of the water rushing over him likely drowned out his voice as he talked to himself. "He is certain to be uncomfortable now...."

Nngh....his stomach hurt. Japan stepped forward and thunked his head against the tiled wall, closing his eyes. This was awful. Every time he tried to talk to people normally nothing ever worked out. And it wasn't like there was a reset button that he could go back to the last save point and try again. This was real life! And it wasn't even the real life where he controlled it so he could even make save points! Pressing his hands against the wall, he pushed back and said, "....I wish I could go back into isolation now. Being an island country is so convenient for that."

And only after he said it did he realize he'd turned the water off and his words had probably carried.

[forsworn]

He was doing his best to try to avoid Honda as much as possible and just focus on the soap, but that was proving difficult as the man seemed to just keep finding new, even more outrageous ways to draw attention to himself. Kratos was starting to wonder if politeness needed to be thrown out the window; as much as he didn't mind admirers (or, as much as he disregarded them), he disliked persistent ones.

He closed his eyes briefly as he tried to clear his mind and pretend like he hadn't heard anything, to think only of the shower and recall the tranquil mood he'd been in prior to Honda's arrival and how otherwise, the majority of his day had been pleasant and quiet. He had always failed at not obsessively dwelling on small failures or low points, but now was the time to reverse that trend and by some magic change his entire outlook on life so that he could just...

...relax, but that word wasn't in his vocabulary. And his attempts at turning his mind away from the situation at hand were only making him think of it more. It looked like it was just going to be something he wouldn't be able to ignore.

Damn. Kratos turned and gave Honda a look that betrayed his exasperation. "Are you alright?"

[osoreirimasu]

"Are you alright?"

No. No, he was not. He was fairly certain he had all but ruined the only good working relationship he had here that wasn't with another Nation and he had no idea how to set it right. Honestly, if this were with another Nation it would be easy. Most of them understood Japan's eccentricities - things which he considered normal - and simply overlooked them. His reliability as an ally and an economic power helped them accept (or at least tolerate) the strangeness of his foreign culture. At times, the other Nations even participated in and enjoyed Japan's quirks and hobbies, especially France.

Kratos was not a Nation. He would not understand Japan's eccentricities or participate in his weird quirks and this misunderstanding had been Japan's mistake. He had approached Kratos as he would a new Nation, hoping for the implicit understanding that all Nations gave one another. Kratos, a human (originally, at least), could not be expected to accept a Nation's strangeness. Even if that Nation was the one who had technically birthed him in a most round-about way.

"...." The exasperation in his eyes was clear enough and Japan looked away, trying to keep his face neutral even as he felt his heart drop through the floor. "...Yes, I apologize. I have been a nuisance to you." With no way to clear up the misunderstanding without revealing more than he really should, Japan thought it best to simply withdraw from the situation and attempt another reconciliation at a later date. Perhaps when Kratos wasn't naked. Timing was everything after all.

Gathering up his things, Japan bowed his head slightly and turned to leave.