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It was strange living with a creature such as Doe. They looked mostly human, so Yuu had wanted to treat them as such, but there was clearly a difference. Their fingers and toes didn’t match up, and their skin was reshapable and smelt like… wet clay for some reason for a couple examples.
But considering how much time they spent in rancid garbage, despite Yuu’s best efforts to keep it clean and offer a hand around their place, she had to finally ask. “...Can you bathe or do you have an issue with water? I’ve noticed you have a bathroom but never… see you shower?”
Doe blinked, his attention moving from the screen down to her, thinking about the question for a moment, fingertip tapping his mouth before making a so-so gesture. “I can wash my hair~!”
“Only?”
He looked sheepish and embarrassed, but nodded again. “But it’s easy to make sure only my hair gets wet~!” …And to Yuu’s horror she watched… Doe’s eyes slowly slide into his face with a soft wet suction sound like removing a boot from mud , leaving two open gaping holes where his eyes were, hers as wide as the empty sockets as she watched Doe’s hair begin to writhe and pull itself out of their scalp, and with a few final hard tugs, and a different, deeper version of the same suction sound… and suddenly her boyfriend was… empty body and… a hairball . …A waving hairball at that, jumping onto her lap. “ This part of me can get wet~!”
She blinked down, before gently petting him, giggling a little as he trilled and shook, leaning into her hand. “Well… That’s actually not… too bad. You’re actually kind of cute like this~ And you’re safe to get wet like this?”
Doe gave her a full body nod of yes, before doing a little tank turn in her hand so his eye was pointed to the bathroom, extending a hair tendril towards it. “ Onwards~! ” Before giggling.
She carried him into the bathroom, looking between the shower and the sink, before gently putting him down in the sink instead. It made more sense than the full shower. …Plus she would likely have gotten sprayed too, and she wasn’t in the mood to change her clothes right now… or remove them at all really, so the sink made more sense. Doe seemed content with which option she picked, seemingly humming to himself as he pulled shampoo off the back of their toilet towards themselves, resting it on the edge. It was clear by the action, Doe had been more than used to doing this action by himself, but it was clearly more of a ‘as needed’ task than every day like she felt the need to. …Then again, except when he was nervous, she had never really seen him actually sweat? So except for the smells he picked up naturally from his room, he really didn’t need to do this, did he?
He paused with a soft meep sound when he felt Yuu pick him up with one hand, the other turning the tap on, “What temp?”
“...Nothing too hot~!” He seemed to be vibrating slightly in excitement, eye locked down on the sink as she adjusted the water to just above lukewarm… a temperature she would personally shower at roughly.
Only seeing one excited eye did make her stop and ask, “...Where did your second eye go?”
He leaned back to look at her, tilting his body to the side before giggling, several more eyes peering out from the writhing hair mass, a staticky sound starting, before rolling back into it, a silent display of explanation, and honestly… she didn’t want him to put to words exactly how such a process worked, but it did explain enough to satisfy her curiosity! When she was satisfied with the warmth of the water, she put him back down in the sink, grinning softly as he sat under it, eye closed, looking like he was enjoying himself. After a moment she started moving the water around to wet his hair, Doe happily giving her help when they could.
When she was satisfied he was completely damp, she started lathering up his hair. …She wasn’t 100% sure what the scent was based on the bottle, the words shifting and warping whenever she stared too long at it. Whatever it was though, it smelt weirdly like a freshly washed game arcade from the 90s… a little sweet like candy and soda, of paper prize tickets, a little like carpet cleaner, faintly of pizza grease and of new plastic buttons. It was strange, but wholly not an unpleasant scent, lathering him up until she lost them amongst the bubbles, watching him scoot circles around the edge of the sink to leave a bubble trail to bemuse himself before rolling under the tap, ‘belly’ up, letting Yuu rinse him with a giggle. …He was being very cute. And if he kept being this cute, she was going to want to wash his hair more often… but it did seem that Doe was deeply enjoying the feeling of her hands moving through his hair, and over his… ‘scalp’? based on the vibrations and trilling occasionally coming out of him, and him leaning into her hands.
After he was all rinsed off, she reached for his conditioner. …It seemed he didn’t quite grab the matching one, this one smelling faintly of slushies and movie theatre popcorn instead of new buttons and pizza, but the combination didn’t smell bad… just… strangely nostalgic for a childhood that wasn’t hers. She spent her days inside reading after all, not in loud and noisy places. She massaged it into their ‘scalp’, grinning as he made happy content sounds, clinging with several tendrils to the side of the sink, letting the conditioner soak into his strands for several minutes, Yuu taking a moment to sit on his toilet, taking in the small and frankly poorly kept bathroom. …but considering what he was, it wasn’t exactly like he needed 100% hygiene the way she did, and honestly… considering his main living space… the bathroom was actually a step up.
She looked over to notice Doe was quietly watching her, perking up with a heart pupil when she looked back, grinning softly at him. “You’re cute~” He froze, blinking, before pointing at himself, Yuu nodding with a bigger grin, “Yes, you ~”
He slowly slid down the edge of the sink into the middle, and the soft gargling sounds made her concerned they were drowning, pulling him up out of the water, watching his pupil spiral around with concern. “Doe?!”
A larger tendril of hair and a smaller one mimicked a thumbs up before shaking slightly, conditioner splattering against the mirror and Yuu, earning a snicker and a shake of her head, putting them down in the sink, “Silly~ Let’s get that out of your hair~” …It looked a little wrong, and she was going to smell like a cinema faintly, but there were worse fates to have~
She grabbed a towel that smelt clean, despite the strange stain that took over a third of it, wrapping Doe up in it, and rubbing him all over to get the majority of the water out of his hair, earning a giggle fit, him bouncing and writhing in the towel, Yuu unable to keep herself from laughing along as he did, before putting him on the towel, down on the top of the toilet lid before looking around their bathroom. After a moment of looking she spotted what she was searching for… a hairdryer . She plugged it in, and despite the burning dust smell, it seemed to work fine, Doe looking over at her in a mix of excitement and concern, bracing themself against the back of the toilet, Yuu blinking at him in confusion, until she pointed the dryer at him and watched him nearly fly against the wall, his eyelid flapping as she pointed it at him, earning a concerned sound, quickly turning it off, Doe poofing out for a second, looking up at her with a wide eye. “... AGAIN~!”
It was 15 minutes of excited hairball fluttering before Doe was both done being flown about, and Yuu was satisfied he was dry, moving him to the living room, setting him on her lap, combing through his hair with a wide tooth comb, feeling Doe relax under her touch, before eventually a soft snoring sound filled the room, heard over the din of the staticky tv, earning a soft and tender smile from her, putting the comb down, and just trailing her fingers through his hair, watching the now clean hair gently form into soft curls instead of the wild mess it normally was. …He was strangely almost pretty , like a porcelain doll when he was freshly washed like this. …She knew it was only a matter of time before his natural movements with it turned it once again into a wild nest, and she’d have to start the process all over again, but for now, she could admire her boyfriend’s very pretty hair in its prettiest state. … She kind of looked forward to them messing it up all again so she can do this again~