Day 41: Women's Showers

[revolutionise]

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 Edward had done the night before.

I really hope those rooms magically turned clean this morning or something, like every other place in here seems to, Utena thought at that, hoping that no patients had awoken to the rather desperate-looking remains of a break-and-enter.

Taking a wash towel from one of the baskets, Utena headed for a free showerhead.

[Free. Limit: Any]

Comments

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

"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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

"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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

"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.livejournal.com]

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."

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

Simple and crude though it was, the message was easy to understand. Maybe she'd known it all along, maybe she'd just needed to hear it somewhere that wasn't inside her own head, but somehow it all clicked.

"N-no, no Alita-hime, I understand," she assured the other girl. Really, she was a far better friend than Kagura could have wished for in her own time and place.

"I have to find the right star for me, right? Even... even if it isn't easy now."

[himetsuru.livejournal.com]

Relief washed across the princess' face when Kagura didn't start bawling and didn't give Falis a look like she was crazy. She smiled as she continued to rinse all the suds out of her hair; it was taking forever.

"Yeah, you do. And you'd be surprised what that star is and where you find it," she told the other girl. "There's a lot of men... a lot of women, too, in this world that could be your star. And sometimes, that star will find you, see you and grow a tail to swim the skies to you. And... I'm done with the fucking metaphor before I start sounding really stupid."

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

Kagura nodded, giving a short laugh at Alita's attempts to keep up her story. She had a lot to think about, but it did feel better, to finally get that off of her chest.

"It's okay," she assured the other girl. "I just... it was what I needed to hear."

[himetsuru.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Surprise was quite evident on Falis' face. "Huh. You know I fucking suck at this kind of comforting thing."

[kagurazuki.livejournal.com]

She finished washing and picked up a towel, wiping her face and eyes before holding another one out to Alita.

"Mm, w-well, maybe you're better at it than you think?" she suggested, smiling slightly, but meaning it this time.

[himetsuru.livejournal.com]

The princess wring her hair out, subtly taking a moment to look over Kagura's exposed body before accepting the towel.

"Huh," she said wiping her body down and then simply wrapping the towel around her hair. "Imagine that. Milano would be amazed." Well, not really since Milano knew her better than anyone, but still. The girl would give the princess that knowing look which would practically melt Falis' heart, but that was not something to think about here.