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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Xander didn't say anything, but he did frown after he caught sight of the marks. He knew they both had a hard life, but he wondered if maybe in some ways, it was easier having Buffy, Willow, Giles and so many helping. Didn't Sam just have his brother mostly?

He had taken the scrub from Sam, and slowly started to wash over his back. His free hand briefly reached out toward the scars before sliding down and away again.

"Just uh let me know if anything's sore?"

Sam let his head drop forward, exposing his back better. "They don't really bother me unless the weather's being weird. Luckily, on Stacy, there's not been a problem."

Xander nodded, "Yeah, I've almost forgotten what thunderstorms are like." He continued scrubbing Sam's back, drawing long lines over shoulders and back. He was so focused on it that he didn't realize how lingering the contact was becoming, or how low.

For some reason, the lingering really didn't bother Sam. Not as much as maybe it should have been, at least. The low, on the other hand, made him reach back and snag Xander's wrist, pulling it back up. "Not there," he said, voice shaking slightly.

Xander's eye widened, and he spazzed a little, his features coloring. King of the Cretins strikes again.

"Oh man, uh sorry, sorry! I wasn't thinking. Uh yeah, yeah we can pretend that didn't happen and I think you're all done." He dropped the scrubber into the water and stepped back from Sam.

He'd probably have laughed if he could have seen Xander's face. Actually, he did laugh a little as he shook his head, turning back around to sit. "Nah, it's just....there's a scar along my spine, low down. You may have seen it." Given all the scars, it would have been difficult for him not to see it. "It's a reminder of...a really, really bad time in my life, that's all."

Xander did, but again he wasn't going to ask.

"Yeah I got that, wasn't going to ask," he nodded, gesturing to his left eye or really the empty socket that remained. Both had their share of battle scars.

"Was a bad time for us too. Didn't get much better for a while after that either." Between Buffy storming the castle without a plan and getting some of the Potentials killed along with his injuries, and then the casualities they lost in the last battle of the Sunnydale Hellmouth. "Lost my hometown a short time afterwards, and uh... the girl I almost married."

Sam glanced at empty socket and nodded, seeming to relax a bit. Xander's scar really didn't bother him, somehow. But, then, he hadn't been there for it.

Actually, he'd completely stopped watching Buffy while he'd been at Stanford. He kind of wondered, now, what he'd missed.

"Sucks," he said, shaking his head in commiseration. "I don't know about hometowns, honestly, but I know about losing someone you would have married." Even if Jess's loss hadn't been that acute in a while now.

Basically a whole lot of 'it got worse'.

Xander nodded, "Yeah I think you guys said something about being on the road a lot? I wouldn't have minded that. Even tried the road trip after high school. Only got as far as Oxnard when the engine fell out from under me."

He fidgeted a little, "We were trying again with it after I stood her up at the altar, long story, involved demons with crystal balls and future visions."

Funny. Sounded a lot like Sam's life.

"In some ways, it's all right," Sam conceded. Not that he'd tell Dean that. "But you don't ever put down roots anyway. You have to be careful not to go back to the same places you went before. At least, if you worked a job there. It...gets lonely."

He shook his head slightly. "I'm sorry you lost her. It sounds like it could have been a good thing."

He nodded, "I think it's helped there's always been a team of us. Buffy didn't have to fight alone. It's the main reason she's outlived other Slayers. Before that they had to go on their own, with just their Watcher for support."

Xander nodded, "Yeah, yeah, Ahn was something else. But kind of weird talking about past relationships with uh sort of temporary spouse."

"Yeah. It's...mostly just me and Dean in our world. Bobby gives us backup a lot, even if it's to just yell at us." He grinned at that. Bobby was...Bobby. And Sam wouldn't have him any other way. "But 99 percent of the time, it's just me and Dean and the Impala."

Except for ten months when Dean had been dead, but Sam was ignoring that right now.

He snorted, leaning back against the side of the pool. "I don't know that it's so weird. I mean, it's more because...well, it's not a relationship as such. So there's not a lot of reason to discuss past relationships. Or maybe it just feels safer because there isn't?"

"Who's Bobby?"

Xander didn't look disappointed. He didn't. Ok, maybe a little, but he thinks he hid it ok.

"Right, right, just two friends, hanging out. ...Naked and married. Right. No awkward."

Sorry, Xander. Sam's just...clueless enough when it comes to girls liking him. Guys? It's going to take a while.

Possibly a long while. Best get comfortable.

"Bobby's this older Hunter that was friends with our dad. Well...they got in a fight and stopped talking. They didn't really talk again and then Dad died." Sam shook his head. "He was like another dad to us growing up. When he and Dad weren't arguing." And his smile is fond, because Sam really does love Bobby. "He's probably on the ship somewhere. Just waiting to come out and call just 'idjits'."

Sam glanced down at himself and put his hands in his lap again. "You know, I'd almost managed to forget the naked..."

You'd think Xander would be used to it, especially with years of pining after Buffy. Though granted he barely noticed Willow and Dawn's crushes on him for years, so he had his own moment of cluelessness.

"Sounds a little like Giles who I think is still awake around here. I haven't talked to him in forever though. Oh and I heard from Buff which was awesome."

He covered up with his own hands, "Yeah, sorry, my cletus the slack jawed yokel side was acting up again with his big mouth. We should probably get out anyway." And then do what? Huts? No, food right? Food is good, yummy distracting food. Especially when it's real and not ship slop.

"That's awesome. It's always good to know that you aren't alone on the ship." And it wasn't as easy for some as it was for him. Dean was Dean and never that far away.

"Don't worry about it," Sam advised, then reached up and rubbed one hand through his hair. "Right. Getting out. And dressed and...food, I'd suppose."

"Yeah right, lots of real food to stock up on. Hey, you don't think these guys would have heard of Twinkies or HoHos do you?"

Yes, Xander's eating habits are very similiar to Dean's, also with the number of times they're eager to eat as well.

He started to turn around to look for their clothes, and then...

"Uh Sam? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure we set clothes down around here? Or am I crazy?"

"I have no idea, actually. But I wouldn't make any bets on it." Sorry to say, Xander. Though that sounded very familiar and he hadn't managed to get 'married' to Dean's clone, had he?

Then the next question sank in and Sam turned to look. No, no. No. "Crap."

"Yeah, thinking these guys never heard of preservatives or processed food anyway. And I've been having a Cheetos craving for several months now." His shoulders slumped at that before becoming more panicked at the loss of clothing.

"Affirmative on the clothes, great, well they weren't funky enough to walk away and if they were, what the hell was in that freaky paint?"

"If they walked away, I'm really glad I didn't try to eat any of it." Okay, look, it smelled good and Sam's been craving fruit. He's the healthier brother, after all. At least, when it comes to food. "Maybe you could find something like Cheetos?"

Which was easier to think about than the lack of clothing. "Right. Okay. They couldn't have gone far, right? Maybe someone just...moved them. Aside."

"Nah, there's a special piquant quality to that cheesy dust they use, you can't get it just anywhere."

Xander frowned, as he climbed out, and promptly tried to cover up. He even flailed to grab a tree branch or a rock to do so.

"Or they stole them and they're holding them hostages unless we pay them. Because they're evil evil clothing thieves."

"Which makes no sense since we don't have anything on us that would allow us to pay them." Sam hauled himself out of the water as well, looking around. And keeping himself covered. It was not an easy balancing act.

"Evil clothes thieves don't use logic," Xander stated as he continued trying to look. He dropped the rock he'd been using and cursed as he had no choice but to bend over, essentially mooning the surroundings.

"They haven't struck me as very evil." Clothing thieves, possibly. But not evil. "Dude, calm down. We'll get it figured out. Panicking isn't going to help."

"I'm not panicking? Who said anything about panicking, it's just clothes, which cover you and keep you from feeling naked!"

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

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