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A soft click could be heard in the quiet apartment as the bathroom door slowly opened and two shaggy figures slunk inside on soft footpads. Another faint click as the door shut once more.
If one were to listen carefully they might have heard the faint scrabbling of long fingernails running up and down the wall in search of the light-calling button, followed by the brief noise of the fan turning on and just as quickly turning off to quietly yelped curses before all noises briefly stopped as the residents of the bathroom held as still as the statues they were for centuries.
"...I don't think anyone woke up," Right whispered.
"Good. Why did that happen, I thought the levers called light and not noise?"
"There's more than one lever," came the sheepish reply.
"Well, try a different one." They'd waited hours for this chance, Hana stayed up almost disturbingly late staring at her mirror full of pictures made of captured lightning. They weren't doing anything Wrong, of course, they were allowed in this small, arcane bathroom, they just didn't want to bother Hana. And were dying to try the fantastical instant water for themselves. Hana had given them a stormy frown when they'd tried to watch her use the washbasin, even though they'd only peeked around the doorframe. Very unobtrusive. Dera had likewise slowly closed the door on them. And they wouldn't dream of spying on their master, that would be the Height of rudeness. So now they were taking matters into their own hands. They Must know the Secrets of this room.
Right flipped another lever, bracing for noise, but this time only light filled the room, the harsh glare reflecting off every surface brighter than any lantern.
The tsugai breathed a sigh of relief. Turning to the sink, sudden movement caught their eye and they leapt into defensive stances, bracing against the walls to face-
"Oh. It's us." Left blinked at her own reflection, braced in the upper corner of the ceiling. That's right, there was a mirror of monstrous proportions in this small bathroom, large enough she could see her entire reflection.
"Oh yeah." Right straightened and removed the towel from his shoulder and replaced it on the rack it'd fallen from (such a soft and fluffy towel too) before leaning in to the mirror and giving it a big grin. His grin fell slightly and he turned to Left, who was inspecting the washbasin knobs. "My smile isn't scary, is it?" Those kids just passed out for other reasons, right?
"No."
"Yeah, that's what I thought." He flashed his teeth at the mirror again. "Weird to see us like this, huh?" He pointed at their reflections, clearly showing Left on the right and visa versa. Left looked up and stared for a moment before moving around to the other side of Right and leaning back over the counter to keep examining the washbasin. "Yeah, that's better," Right chuckled before also turning to the basin.
There were two round knobs with angular patterning in the translucent not-quite-glass, labeled with an "H" and a "C."
"Shouldn't they be labeled with an "L" and an "R?" Right jabbed a finger at the offending letters.
"I think humans don't need to be told which is left and which is right."
"Yeah they do, remember that master a while ago who kept getting us mixed up? Ah, we should've worn letters! That would've fixed it!"
Left ignored his rambling. "No, these must be for another purpose." She gingerly reached out to prod the top of the knob, then the side. As she put pressure against one of the carved ridges the knob turned slightly, and they both jumped back a little.
"Ohhh"
"Ohhhhhh"
Left reached out and grabbed the knob, slowly turning it until-
Fwshhhhhh
Another small jump before Right gave a triumphant laugh, which immediately cut off when Left's glare reminded him they were trying to be quiet. He reached out to poke the stream of water.
"Oh! It's hot!" Instant hot water... so the rumors were true.... "So then what do they need the other one for?"
Left rotated the first knob around until the water stream stopped, and Right grabbed the other one to struggle with until he hit on the correct direction and more water began pouring out of the faucet. Left gingerly held her finger to the stream.
"Oh. It is cold."
They both looked at the initials on top of the knobs again.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh"
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
They amused themselves turning the knobs back and forth and the subsequent effects on the temperature of the water streaming from the faucet until Left turned her attention to the real mystery worthy of her attention: the tub.
Could enough water really come out of this faucet to fill it up so high up? And hot water too? Kings and emperors hadn't had such luxury at their fingertips without a hundred servants to carry the buckets.
Right turned the sink knobs back and forth until the water stopped completely and moved to join her next to where she crouched on the lip of the tub against the wall, peering at the shiny metal lever above the faucet. They sure made metal different in the lower lands, the handle was so shiny it was like a mirror. They'd seen shiny metal before, sure, there was something different about this, an almost rounder quality to the reflection. Aside from the literal roundness from the distortion of the handle's shape.
Left moved her head up and down, watching her face narrow and widen cartoonishly in the reflection. Right, noticing what she was doing, did the same, putting his face close to the handle and tilting it up and down, watching his forehead and chin balloon and narrow. Peering upwards next, he inspected the strange fixture with many tiny holes jutting out of the wall several feet up from the side of the tub. "What do you think comes out of there?" Right jabbed a finger upwards. "Is that where the noise was coming from? Or more water?"
Left regarded the mystery sculpture. "There's no handles..."
"Yeah you're right, there's only the lower lever. Maybe air comes out? To help dry!"
"Now you're being too fantastical." Left returned her attention to the tub faucet and reached out to the handle (she'd used the washbasin, she knew what to do) rotating it with confidence.
Nothing happened.
"Hmm."
"Hmmmmm."
She twisted it back and forth, to no avail.
"There's a button here, maybe that's it?" Right indicated a small round protrusion on the faucet. Left nodded, and he tried pushing it. It didn't move. He peered closer, poking at it. It rattled slightly. That meant it could move, right? He wedged a claw under the lip of the button and pulled up. "Ha!" The button did indeed extend upwards.
They waited expectantly for the water to start, but after a few seconds there was nothing.
"Maybe it takes longer for the larger tub?"
"...maybe."
Left grabbed the handle and twisted it around back and forth again, to no avail.
"Wait, I have an idea." Fresh from his victory with the earlier button, Right grabbed the handle and lifted up, leveraging it outwards easily-
“ AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! ”
“AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”
Left and Right bowed to the carpet in supplication in front of a cat and shiba inu, looking like a pair of bedraggled, wet mops.
"We are sorry we broke your tall faucet," Left apologized.
"Please forgive us," Right tearfully begged to the carpet.
Hana looked down at the pair in disgruntled disapproval, enhanced by the squint of someone just woken up and who isn't happy about it. "That's going to cost money! Tch, you two are almost as much trouble as your master," Hana scoffed.
"We're sorryyyyyyy," Right sobbed.
"Just don't do it again. From now on, if you don't know how to use something in this place, you ask me or Dera to show you. No more little late night 'adventures,' ok?"
Left and Right nodded.
"Cool. I'm going back to bed." Hana turned and shuffled back to her room, the cat and shiba following after.
Another door opened and a sleepy blond head poked out looking around quizzically.
"Don' worry about it," Hana gestured vaguely at him before closing her door behind her.
Yuru stared blankly at her door before looking around and finally noticing his tsugai dripping on the carpet like a pair of sad wet rats. Right waved at him. After staring for several seconds, Yuru evidently decided he wasn't awake enough for this, and withdrew his head back into his room and shut his own door behind him.
Right stood up. "That was fun! I guess this means we can't look around the kitchen..."
Left almost had real pain on her face at the realization. "We... can look at the city's lights."
“Ah, excellent idea!” Right grinned in agreement and moved to open the window (fortunately windows were still simple to use four hundred years later. Unlike bathrooms), and the two tsugai climbed out into the night.