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“Martyn, I have a question for you.”
Martyn glanced back at Sausage, then hummed his go-ahead. They were walking back to the Kestrel's base after a day of exploring the Isles.
“Okay,” You could always hear how much Sausage was grinning from his voice alone. It was rather endearing. “Well, I was thinking about what we were talking about the other day, when we were sailing back from the quest.”
“What, your ship's name?” Martyn snorted.
“No!” said Sausage. Martyn laughed. “And leave her out of this! Listen, I just wanted to know: What is the most luxurious bath you've had, just off the top of your head?”
To Martyn's credit, he did give that a genuine bit of thought. Honestly, it was probably the time he managed to balance his laptop desk between either edge of the tub. He spent an hour that should've been used to bathe eating Doritos and watching anime-- probably not a very effective bath, granted, but about as luxurious as one could get at his budget.
He couldn't say any of that though, and Sausage was waiting patiently for a response, so he figured he should get to making something up. Or, honestly, based on his appearance when he'd dropped in this game--
“I'd say any bath I've taken is a rather luxurious one,” he decided.
“Whaddya mean?” Sausage asked. Martyn shrugged.
“Well, I can't really remember the last time I had a proper bath that wasn't just, yanno, a quick dip in the sea-”
Which was true enough, honestly-- his time as a rat had given him some pretty nasty (literally) habits-- but also he liked looking back and seeing Sausage's shocked face.
“What? You're serious?” he asked. Martyn nodded.
“Yeah. Why, why wouldn't I be?” he replied, making sure to sound just genuine enough that Sausage wouldn't know he was teasing.
Sausage huffed.
“Oh, this is terrible-- you know what? As soon as we get back to the base, I'm getting you all the amenities I can, and I'm giving you the full experience!”
“The full experience?” Martyn repeated.
“I mean, unless you'd rather me not.”
“No, I'm just confused as to what the 'full experience' entails.”
“Oh! Well you know, oils, candles, maybe some petals, someone to assist--”
“Assist,“ repeated Martyn again.
“Yeah, with the bathing,” when Martyn turned back to stare at him, he backtracked, “Or- or just the hair, and we could add some soap to cover up the, uh... yanno, your bits.”
With a small grin, Martyn nodded sagely.
“Macaque and boules,” he said, making Sausage burst out laughing so loud that he appeared to disturb multiple nearby NPCs. Martyn let himself smile proudly.
Once Sausage calmed down, he went on.
“Alright, sounds perfect!” he said cheerily, quickening his walk to outpace Martyn to their home base “This is non-negotiable see you there bye!”
Sausage speed-walked out of sight, and Martyn sighed a chuckle.
Well, it's not like he was going to disagree anyway.
It was kind of amusing that the first thing he heard walking into the building was Kyle asking if anyone'd seen his lavender oil. Sausage, whose heavy footsteps could be heard obviously upstairs, stayed suspiciously silent. Martyn just rolled his eyes and slipped upstairs before Kyle could ask him.
Sausage seemed to be preparing the bath in his own room, so Martyn wandered inside, standing at the door frame. Luckily, it seemed this world was equipped with at least very rudimentary plumbing, so the water had already been drawn and was, presumably, warm. There was a distinctly floral scent in the air, between the candles and probably Kyle's lavender oil, and Sausage had pulled the curtains just enough to let the moonlight come through in a Kestrel-yellow hue. Sausage was placing a fairly soft-looking towel on the nearby sink, and as such failed to notice Martyn's entrance until he turned around. When he did, he yelped, but quickly regained his composure.
“You took longer than I expected,” he said. Martyn scoffed. After living off beetroots and ale the past few days, Sausage couldn't have expected Martyn's stamina to be at its peak.
“This looks a bit much,” Martyn said. It did. It looked quite nice, as well, but also a bit much.
“Yeah, I bet it would if you've bathin' in the ocean.”
“Touche.”
“Anyways, you came just in time!” Sausage grinned. “I'll get out for the time being, feel free to get comfortable in there, wash yourself off if you want-- just call me when you're ready for me to wash your hair!”
“Do I have to?”
“Only if you want to! But I have the good shampoo,” Sausage said, holding up a little glass bottle. And with that, he shut the bathroom door, leaving Martyn by himself.
Well.
Martyn stripped off his admittedly kind of disgusting clothes and left them on the ground. He stepped over to the tub, testing the temperature. Predictably, it was perfect, and the oil in the water gave his skin a vague tingly sensation.
He got into the bath.
Luckily, since he'd been swimming often these past few days, he didn't immediately turn the water a disconcerting shade of brown. However, after a decent scrub, it was a bit murky (and Martyn felt really good, actually. He should probably wash himself more often.)
He took a brief moment to breathe and take in his scenery. The candles flickered with the soft night breeze coming through the window. The stars outside of said windows continued to astonish him, clearer than he'd ever seen back home and still then not as pristine as they looked while out at sea.
If he didn't have a mission, he'd honestly be able to get quite used to this.
Especially the pampering, really. He hadn't been treated with this much care since he was a kid, having a sick day at home with his mum.
He sighed, waving his bath bubbles around to make sure they covered anything private, then called Sausage's name. Incredibly quickly, Sausage appeared at the door, giving him a smile. Martyn smiled back. Sausage didn't seem intent to say anything, so Martyn didn't either.
Before anything, Sausage ran some more water, adding more bubbles and oil to it as well. Martyn appreciated that. Then, he knelt down behind Martyn's head and opened the glass shampoo bottle.
”You know,“ Martyn began as Sausage started to rub it into his hair, “I don't know if I really expected you to be doing the hair washing.”
“Really?” Sausage asked. “Who else, then?”
“I don't know, some servant?” Although they weren't too well off yet “Or Scar.”
Sausage laughed.
“Nah,” he said. “I mean, that sort of thing can be weird when it's someone you don't know too well. So I figured I could do with a bit of humbling!”
Martyn laughed this time.
“Congrats on the realization,” he said. Sausage hummed, and asked him to duck his head to rinse it off. Martyn did so.
Sausage started conditioning next, and they went back to their silence. It was pleasant. Sausage's nails were trimmed, but had enough length on them to gently scratch Martyn's scalp as he worked. Even once the conditioner was surely more than worked in, Sausage continued the motions, possibly while waiting for it to set. Martyn let out a pleased exhale and shut his eyes.
After what only felt like a moment, but was probably longer, Sausage's voice startled him from his sudden stupor.
“You're not dozing off, are you Martyn?” he said. “Because I don't think I could carry you out of the tub, I'll be honest.”
Martyn hummed.
“Yeah, I'll admit, the warm bath and head massage made me a bit drowsy,” he snarked, “Who could've seen it coming?”
Sausage giggled.
“Duck your head,” he said. Martyn did, shaking it a bit to ensure it all rinsed away. When his head emerged again, Sausage, unfortunately, stood up from behind him.
“Alright,” he said, “take as long as you want in here.”
“Eh,” responded Martyn, “May as well pop out now, so I'm not falling asleep again. It'll be blooming cold, though, won't it?”
“Oh don't worry, I have wonderful blankets,” Sausage assured.
"You have wonderful blankets?” Martyn asked.
“Oh, yeah, well-- I just thought it'd be easier for the both of us if you just spent the night in my room,” Sausage said, “I figured if we can kiss, we can snuggle as well, can't we?”
Martyn laughed. Admittedly, that did sound quite nice.
“Alright. I'll be out in a minute.”
“Mkay! Oh, and-!“ Sausage said as he began to leave. He bent down to what appeared to be a linen cupboard and pulled out a plush robe, setting it by the towel. “You can use that to wrap up. I'll make sure to get these-“ he picked up Martyn's clothes- “washed tomorrow.”
Martyn nodded, and Sausage left.
Martyn got out of the bath, making sure to drain it and blow out all the candles, before drying off and eventually bundling up in the offered robe (and it felt just as nice as he thought it would.) Then he walked out into Sausage's room, where the latter had already changed into nightclothes and was sat on the bed.
“I take it it's alright that I'm ready to turn in now?”
Sausage nodded.
“Of course, come, come, lay down!” he said, doing so himself. Martyn joined him, as requested.
Sausage's blankets were, indeed, quite wonderful. The man himself draping an arm across him and perching his chin above Martyn’s head was also appreciated. Very much so, in fact. Martyn quickly pushed away any thoughts on how long it'd been since he'd had such an intimate touch.
He could smell the salty air blowing through the cracked window, as well as the perfumed scent of the man beside him-- actually, not too unlike his own, now.
He sighed. This wasn't how he was expecting this night to go, but it was quite a welcome turn of events.