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Inky black hair spills down the sides of her neck and into the tub, causing the water around her head to appear oil-slick.
The stark white of the nape of her neck, and the protrusion of her shoulder blades holds ENA's attention as she speaks.
Her voice echoes off the tiled walls, fills the room with a serenity it never possessed without her presence. It was dull before her. Stuffy. Claustrophobic.
Coral's rambling, no matter the subject, is more comforting than most things in ENA's life. There's no reek of expectation in her complaints.
"I just... I don't understand why they would need such a thing printed! So many pages of it! How wasteful... And it gave me a migraine for, well, until just a moment ago!"
ENA's more than content to listen to the cadence of her voice, collecting Coral's hair into a ponytail in her hands, watching as she shudders.
"Mm, many condolences my dear."
ENA's touch somehow manages to bypass a full-on flinch response from Coral's overly-sensitive self. Her nerves are keen on keeping her painfully aware of her place on the food chain, usually. This is what does scare her a little--her considerable lack of aversion to it.
Their movements are far from predictable, their tone not the softest. Actually, that's not true when ENA speaks to her, is it?
She feels... safe.
"...You act as if I'm important. The only status I have in society is because of what I can offer a company. It isn't talent, not something I earned. Just biological traits. If I were to lose my abilities... I can't even say I'd hire myself."
ENA pauses momentarily.
"What a business sees in you isn't your worth," answers Meanie, sternly.
Coral blinks. This is the antithesis of all the workplace platitudes ENA usually generates.
Survival had been her top priority for so long, she'd forgotten she has other attributes. Before ENA had treated her like there was more to her than self-sustaining office supplies.
Coral gives a long exhale, shoulders slumping forward as she relaxes more into the other entity's touch.
Minutes pass in silence.
"Need I be mindful of...?"
"No--As long as you aren't planning to pour anything directly into my head."
ENA massages the shampoo into a lather on her scalp, observes her body language become looser. Her breathing becomes more calm. She hums, ever so quietly, whenever ENA's claws graze her skin.
Eventually, Coral looks over her shoulder at ENA. The coral on her face is more vibrantly colored than usual.
"Are you not washing up too?"
She looks... troubled?
ENA hesitates. She hadn't really thought about that.
Water sloshes over the rim and onto the floor as Coral shifts around to face the other entity.
ENA's eyes go wide at being perceived straight-on. Her gaze redirects to Coral's face tentatively, searching it for some disgust, annoyance, inconvenience caused by their inaction. But all she can really gather is awkward concern. Even her coral rings are steady, like the rise and fall of her chest. Unusual for her.
"Here."
Squeezing a dollop of shampoo into her palm, Coral takes ENA's head in her hands. They close their eyes, trying to become acquainted with someone else's hands doing a task they cannot remember a time that they didn't perform themself.
It's a lot easier to wash ENA's shorter hair than her own, Coral thinks.
They stay near-perfectly still, head bowed, like they're afraid one wrong move will scare her off like a creature napping precariously in their lap.
In the darkness behind her eyelids, ENA can't outrun herself, despite Coral's presence.
No matter how she washes herself she can't unstain her own flesh. No matter what form she takes, she's still marked by what she is.
She wishes she looked like her partner, like anything that wasn't distinctly an ENA. Something whose capability at least wasn't questioned at every turn.
Being drowned in the sea would do little to dull the smell of her blood.
"Are you still in there?"
Coral ruffles ENA's soapy hair for good measure before she's satisfied with the result. It causes ENA to startle and grimace, before it rips her from her thoughts and makes her finally crack a grin.
"Okay, keep your eyes closed."
She scoops the pitcher full of water, before unceremoniously dousing the other entity with it. ENA folds in on herself, smiling wider at the torrent unleashed upon her. Her ahoge look funny when they're drenched, drooping like ears.
Coral giggles.
"Okay, my turn," Meanie insists, a bit ominously.
Coral squeals as ENA throws the water from the pitcher more than she pours it.
"You weren't even trying! There's still stuff on my head! Come to think of it, there is on yours as well..." her eye narrows.
Foregoing the pitcher entirely, Coral splashes ENA with a tidal wave, much of it spilling from the lip of the tub.
Coral is a ghost before her, perfect skin worrying ENA that she'll go blind looking at her for long. It's not worrying enough to make her look away though. The contrast between Coral's complexion and the hair on her body highlights just how artistically her features are placed.
She squeezes the water from her hair.
ENA's dumbfounded stare is only wiped off once the other creature wraps a towel around herself. The webbing between ENA's left fingers becomes much more apparent to her, suddenly.
Feeling rather like a soggy unfortunate animal left in the rain, ENA steps from the porcelain bathtub as gracefully as she can manage. They shake the water off of themself in a canine fashion.
Mirroring the other, she folds a towel around herself. They tuck their hair behind their ear.
"I hadn't noticed your freckles before. They suit you."
ENA looks at her.
"I like them. I'm much too plain."
ENA cocks her head.
"Do you need to be thrown back in to have your ears washed properly?"
This conjures an image in ENA's mind of her various pieces floating in the tub like bath toys, before she snaps out of it and shakes her head.
"Ah, no no, that shouldn't be necessary."
Coral's wet footsteps are the only sound in the room. ENA accepts her floaty-toy fate the moment before Coral leans in and kisses her still-dripping face.
"Your occupation doesn't determine your worth, either. The compassion you contain means far more than that ever could. I know everything seems to say otherwise, but you are a uniquely valuable individual. For who you are, not what."
Standing idle before each other, nearly bare as the day they were born... they don't seem all that different.
ENA sticks her wireframe hand into the foamy water and pulls the plug.