trans_9 | Splish Splash, I was taking a bath (Bendy timed to just after the weddings)

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Splish Splash, I was taking a bath (Bendy timed to just after the weddings)

Not everybody wanted to go to the consummation huts straight off the bat. Which meant if they wanted to get cleaned up, they needed another spot to do so in.

Luckily, the city had just such a place: the great public baths. They were rather immense. And open, since the Moai didn't have much in the way of nudity taboos. There were private stalls around the edges, though, for those who weren't quite so open. Or just wanted to do a little 'private' bathing (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more). It's traditional for the baths to take a while. After all, pretty much everybody here has just gotten married! Enjoy!

(Oh. And your clothes are going to disappear. Nothing personal, the Rapa Nui just want to make sure you have something clean and dry to change into when you've bathed. Isn't that nice?)

((Yep, there are public baths in the city. Have fun with it! And Jono's still outside the city. I just want to be able to get notifs after I ask for no notifications on the main post.))

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"Oh, then come on over here, Billy. I don't mind talking to you," Hoshi said, her smile helping with her words. She, too, had her voice down so that the locals didn't overhear their conversation.

"It was magical," she commented, a grin on her face. "Yours?"

Billy shuffled over, desire for comforting familiarity overriding any awkwardness he felt.

"It was thrilling," Billy decided after a moment, smiling lightly at the memory. "I'd never seen a wedding ceremony quite like it on Earth. It seemed designed to really show that the souls were united. It's unfortunate that most of ours were for convenience."

His wasn't---not entirely---but he wondered how she felt.

Hoshi kicked her legs a little bit to keep them from falling asleep, all the while supporting herself on the edge of the bath with her elbows. She was still covered, though.

She listened to him and smiled fondly, picturing it just right in her head. "Well... I definitely felt something more than just, 'okay, we gotta do this to get to the next step' sort of stuff, if you know what I mean."

The look in Billy's eyes was just a little too familiar for him to deny the truth. "So did I," he admitted shyly, recalling the kiss in vivid detail. "It brought a lot of things out into the open."

He stretched his legs out, eyes on the water for a moment. "The question, then, is where to go from here."

Hoshi chuckled, nodding with a small grin on her face. "Well, that should be fairly easy."

She placed her finger near her heart, smiling. "You just gotta follow your heart and go with your instincts. After all, they don't call it a gut instinct just because of a pretty title, right?"

"I've never been especially skilled at that," Billy sighed, scrubbing at a spot on his shoulder. "I like to follow logical rules whenever possible, and there's nothing routine about this."

He closed his eyes in thought. "Would simple honesty work?"

"I see," Hoshi said, deciding to wash her own back. Only problem with this was her arm. She managed to get it somewhat clean, the paint washing into the water all at the same time.

"I'd think simple honesty would work. You wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of the person that likes you, after all."

"No, I wouldn't." Billy trailed off then, his gaze shifting over the bath area and finding Ronnie. There she was, peaceful and beautiful and...no, he shouldn't look any longer, but her humming was an incredibly sweet sound.

He turned back to Hoshi's back curiously. "Do you need anything?"

Hoshi's own eyes gazed to what Billy was looking at. She hid a grin behind her usual smile and continued to attempt to wash her back.

"Ah, it's okay." She wasn't aware that her scars were showing, either.

Billy blinked and searched around---he didn't linger on her scars any more than he would want her to focus on his. Still, the arm-bending looked rather painful.

"Are you sure? I've tried to bend my arm that far. It's just an unfortunate limitation of the human anatomy."

Hoshi chuckled, knowing far too well for that. But, if he was willing...

"Mind washing my back, then?"

"No problem."

Fighting down a blush, he reached out and settled a hand on her back for stability. His other gathered up some water and a washcloth, carefully smoothing away the last of the paint.

"You must've had some fun with this part," he laughed, watching the paint drain away.

"Thank you."

Hoshi decided to rest her arms on the rocks that were around the bath, parting her hair some to sink into the water. There we go, now Billy had enough room to work with.

She, honestly, enjoyed someone else washing her back as she let out a content sigh. "Yeah, we did." She still wasn't aware of Phillip's "ultimate life partner, ganbatte!" that he had put on her.

Billy kept at it for a minute or two, checking that all the paint was gone before drawing back and smiling. "I didn't think it would be as comfortable as it was, but we enjoyed it."

He leaned against the rock with a happy sigh, unaware of the paint smudges still littering his back. All his eyes kept wandering back to was Ronnie, but not for too long. Creepiness was undesirable.

Ronnie had gotten slightly closer to the group as more and more people had joined the public bath. She was doing her best to keep her anxiety at a minimum, but it was really hard for her. For the most part when she felt she was a good distance away from anyone in a circumference, she'd close her eyes and hum a subtle sweet tune to herself as she washed off the paint.

Hoshi nodded to Billy as she recognized Ronnae. She noticed that she looked a bit lonely and Billy kept on looking at her, too.

Hm...

"Hey! Wanna join us?" she asked Ronnae, waving her arm up in the air while her other one was covering her chest up.

Billy started, thumping against the rock behind him. She was just going to call Ronnie over like that? He hurriedly threw an arm over the edge of the bath, scrambling for a towel to drop over his lap once he realized that it was permissible to do so.

"Uh...hey!' he added, smiling at her.

Ronnie looked back at the source of the call. When she noticed Billy and who she thought she remembered was Hoshi? She smiled shyly and moved slowly looking a bit nervous. When she reached a spot nearby them she stopped.

"H-hey." Her face was a bit red and definitely avoiding wandering eyes. Which was kind of hard in this place right now.

That she was, Billy! See, Hoshi was just like that, you know? She then smiled and swam over a bit to Ronnie, grinning like she normally did.

"How've you been since the marriage thing?"

Billy shuffled over to join them, still trailing smeared paint wherever he moved. That would have to be taken care of eventually.

"We're sticking together to avoid attention from the locals," he whispered to Ronnie.

Ronnie nodded quickly to Billy and smiled up at Hoshi.

"I.. well... It's been really nice. It was. Well it was a new and very pl-pleasant experience." She looked embarrassed, but was clearly more at ease around them two than random strangers.

Hoshi smiled at Ronnie, nodding her head while she relaxed once more. "Yeah, it definitely was."

"How has your time been on the ship in general, too?"

Billy watched them with a smile, going back to smoothing water on his shoulders. "Agreed."

He decided to sit back and let Ronnie and Hoshi get acquainted. They'd be good for each other, he thought.

Ronnie looked up thoughtfully. "Well it's been alright. A bit awkward if anything and lonely. At least at the start. But that changed once I got into engineering. Even on lonely nights it was fun! But working on stuff like that has always kept my mind occupied for the most part...."

Then she looked to Billy and blushed heavily before looking back at Hoshi. "Recently... well... it definitely hasn't been as lonely... and... Actually it's been really nice." And she'd leave it at that.

Hoshi listened to her, leaning forward to show that she was interested. She chuckled softly, closing her eyes while she remembered how that been. She was extremely thankful for Sasami's help in getting her familiar with the ship in general.

That grin appeared again, masked by her perpetual smile. "I'm glad you've been able to find your calling, so to speak, on this ship, Ronnie."

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