Steamy
Carolyn, for her part, did not react strongly when she opened the back door of the clinic for me; though I wasn't sure I appreciated this being so unsurprising to her.
"Did Deyha tell you I was coming?"
"Mhmm."
"Did she tell you it was her fault?"
Carolyn chuckled. "Yeah. Was it?"
"Not even a little."
"Good. I'm not sure where you anxious types get the idea that everything that goes wrong has a fault."
"But it was my fault."
"Shhh shh shh." Carolyn took my hand and led me to a small well-lit room, complete with the wall PC, sink, and multi-purpose padded chair/table. "I think I'm starting to regret using clinical talk for bedroom activities."
"Why is that?" I helped myself to the paper towel dispenser and blew my nose. The rough texture wasn't pleasant, but it was better than the dripping feeling.
"I just think it would be cruel to trigger your pavlovian response for arousal when I actually just need to patch you up."
"I don't have a pavlovian--"
"Don't you?" she tilted her head in exaggerated innocence. "You don't get a little wet when I say it's time for an examination?"
Before I could argue she lifted up the front of my dress, and my effort to stop her only widened the tear at my hip.
"And I suppose I'm to believe you were already like that."
I grit my teeth and pushed her hand away more carefully but she just tugged at the fabric, widening the gap further.
"Please stop."
"Why?" threads popped as she gave another tug. "The dress is a lost cause."
"It was a gift."
Carolyn dropped the fabric at last. "Oh."
My eyes watered as I examined the fabric. I wasn't even sure it would fit me when everything was said and done. The cotton had been printed to resemble plaid, and then dyed so that the contrast in the blue and green near the bottom hem faded around my hips and the top was just one color with the faintest pattern to it. any remnants of the square texture were made indistinct by the stretchy wrinkled gathering that started around my waist.
"Can it be repaired?" Carolyn rubbed the fabric between her fingers, and then stepped to the side of the table to peek behind the collar. "Where's the tag?"
I laughed bitterly. "There is no tag. My grandmother made it."
"She made this?"
"Yeah. She said she saw the fabric and thought of me, so she bought a few yards and made this."
"And you wore it for field work?"
I glared at Carolyn. "I wasn't planning to fall."
"Nobody ever does." she sighed. "Well, let's carefully get you out of it. We send our smocks to cleaners for blood stains and the like, so I can just include it when we send out in a day or two."
"They won't ruin it?" I worked the straps off my shoulders.
Carolyn shook her head. "No, they might even be able to quote me for mending on it if you'd like. They thread-match and everything. I'm honestly surprised it still fits, but it looks like it could fit for a whole lot more growing too."
"Hah. Yeah, She made it right after I came out and the elastic used to only barely snug up against my chest."
"Have you sent her any pictures of how it fits now?"
"She uh… No. I can't." My eyes watered all over again.
Carolyn hugged me as the fabric pooled at my feet. Sadly, the embrace ranked pretty low in terms of comforting hugs with the rough overcoat and stinging cuts.
"I'm sure she's very proud of you."
I laughed, patting Carolyn awkwardly before easing her back. "I know you're talking about how I'm living my life in general, but It still feels like an absurd thing to say given I've basically bombed out of my original career path and I'm effectively selling my body now to make ends meet."
Carolyn raised an eyebrow. "Selling? To make ends meet? This is news to me."
I stepped out of the dress and nudged it to the side. I felt even colder in the open air. "Maybe I'm exaggerating, but you could argue that modding my body for work reasons is sort of selling out."
"Well I, for one, am very disappointed to hear you consider my hard work to be you giving something up." The sarcasm in her tone was overflowing.
I groaned and used the little pull-out step to climb up onto the table. I had the feeling the only way she would give up this avenue of teasing was if I walked the statement as far back as possible.
I squinted at her as I tried to formulate a response and she only folded her arms to stare back.
"I don't think I'm getting out of this without a bite, so I'm sorry for referring to my affirming care as selling myself. I only meant to make a humorous association."
Carolyn smiled. "And I only wanted an excuse to chomp you. Thank you." She held my knees and leaned in to give me a kiss before turning back to the cabinets and pulling down a blanket.
"Was that the bite?" I unfolded the heavy knit blanket and draped it over my uninjured shoulder and lap.
"You wish." She wet a cloth in the sink and held it under the hand soap dispenser. She squeezed it over the sink before holding it out to me.
"That's… It?"
She nodded. "Mild soap. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you have any deep wounds that need irrigating or stitching."
"No, just little scrapes." I took the cloth and wiped at the barely scabbed red spots on my shoulder. "I just figured we'd use alcohol or hydrogen peroxide."
Carolyn snorted. "Are we in the dark ages? Do you have bad humors in your blood that require medicinal bleeding? Are you going to tell me pain is just weakness leaving the body?"
"That's absurd--"
"Then we agree. Excellent."
"But antiseptic is the best way to clean cuts, right?"
"No? Where the hell did you learn to use powerful antiseptics as wound cleaners?"
"Biology class, probably."
Carolyn squinted. "I doubt it."
She continued grumbling to herself as she dug in the cabinet for a blanket and spread it out over my lap. It was heavy and white like someone had set out to make a beach towel but forgot to make it absorbent.
I unfolded it further to drape over my un-injured side before resuming wiping off the other little scrapes. I was just finishing wiping my knee when Carolyn spoke again at last.
"Using disinfectants on wounds kills healthy cells too. It basically guarantees scarring."
I refolded the washcloth and started wiping away the soap. "Okay. I'll take your word for it."
"Really?"
I shrugged. "Yeah? I trust you and I'm not a fan of the way you look at me as if I've grown a second head sometimes."
"I'm sorry--" Carolyn cut off as there was a knock at the door. I just barely managed to pull the blanket to cover the rest of my chest before Deyha let herself in and closed the door behind her.
"What's the prognosis, doc?" Deyha grinned and set down a bundle of cloth on one of the chairs.
Carolyn groaned. "Its not a fucking disease, the scrapes will simply heal."
"You don't know." I cut in. "Being a dumbass could be contagious."
Carolyn smirked and turned to me. "Good one, but you lose a lot of points for self-deprecation." she looked back at Deyha. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"I just came to steal Maddie away for bath time."
"Not with open wounds you aren't"
"I don't--" Deyha looked at me. "Ooooh darn. Waterproof bandages?"
Carolyn shook her head and folded her arms. "Nope. She needs to stay clean and dry."
And with that the little rollercoaster climb my mood had taken was right back to the bottom. It would have been better if I hadn't gotten my hopes up for bath time again in the first place.
Carolyn grabbed a couple more washcloths and stepped over to look more closely at the cuts. "You did a good job cleaning these… but it's weird that the scratches are so inflamed. Do you have allergies?"
I laughed. "You could say that, yeah."
"What are you allergic to?"
"Uh…" The itchy sensation seemed to grow as I remembered and realized the critical problem with my allergies. "Grass?"
"In general?"
"It's just seasonal. Spring and Fall… and Summer… But I don't have to mow the lawn so much anymore so I haven't had issues in years."
Carolyn rubbed her forehead. "Did you consider that if you have issues with breathing around cut grass that you might have trouble eating it?"
Deyha sucked her breath through her teeth as I fiddled with the cloth in my hands. "No…"
Carolyn wet a new cloth and set about wiping my shoulder. "You're lucky I'm a gene modder." she grumbled.
"You can fix allergies?"
"The whole point of the maintenance doses is to remind your immune system not to freak out about specific things."
"Is it difficult?"
Carolyn paused for a suspiciously long time. "You're worth the effort."
"Thanks." I tried to hold still as she gave the last few wipes to the larger cuts. The wash cloth she had given me seemed to be pink now if I unfocused my eyes enough.
I couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to me to mention allergies before, and I wasn't sure what to do with the guilt over adding more to her plate. Deyha and Carolyn probably wouldn't have invited me to the farm in the first place if I had told them about my allergies at the job fair, and that just meant I felt like I'd cheated my way here.
Deyha picked up the discarded dress and looked it over. "Pity. It really was cute."
"I'm not getting rid of it."
Deyha pursed her lips as she looked more closely, checking the collar as Carolyn had before examining the different holes and tears.
"I didn't think the rip on the side was this big." she mused, before carefully bundling the dress and placing it in the empty chair.
"Yeaaaah, that's my bad." Carolyn finished wiping and grabbed some scissors and a roll of what looked like packing tape.
"Got a little frisky, did you?" Deyha teased.
Carolyn frowned but otherwise seemed to ignore the jab, instead addressing me. "I'll make it up to you. I'm sorry."
"Does that mean I get to bite you now?"
Carolyn rolled her eyes. "No."
"You can bite me instead." Deyha offered.
"Why would I do that?"
She shrugged. "I'm sure you could invent a reason."
I grabbed the roll of tape that Carolyn had been cutting pieces off of, but I didn't have long to inspect it before Carolyn took it back to cut another piece, she let me hold it again after though.
"This looks like the stuff they use for tattoos."
"That's what it is. Only the best for you, my dear."
"The best, huh?" I turned the roll over in my hands and held it up so that Carolyn could section off another piece. "Seems like overkill."
"It would be a shame to let such perfect skin scar, after all." Carolyn ran her fingers through my hair and kissed my forehead before returning to her task.
I looked at the stretch marks, freckles, and benign red spots, but something told me that arguing this point would also constitute self-deprecation.
"Besides." She continued. "Even if these aren't perfectly waterproof, they are definitely water resistant enough for you to shower with, so you can participate in at least half of Deyha's promised bath time."
"Which reminds me," Deyha cut in. "I brought you an old shirt and shorts of mine to wear out of here, but I don't see your underwear anywhere."
I felt my face warm and I bunched up the blanket in my fists as I considered my best excuse to give.
"I noticed that as well." Carolyn chimed in, seeming all too eager to turn this into a dog pile. "I hope they didn't get lost in the field somewhere."
"I wasn't wearing any."
Carolyn gasped with exaggerated surprise. "Why-ever not? My dear Maddie, did you have some illicit agenda with my wife?"
I squinted at Carolyn. "Someone has been making it so my bras don't fit lately, and I don't see you giving Deyha a hard time about panties."
"Deyha doesn't turn into a water faucet after a little bit of petting." Carolyn set the bandage supplies aside and began to rub a large circle on my back, while her other hand slipped under the blanket and over the top of my thigh.
"Carolyn…" I pushed her hand off my leg, but she just put it back, further inside and up than before, so I held the blanket down with both hands between my legs.
"Yes?" she flicked the blanket off my shoulder, and as I scrambled to cover up again she cupped between my legs, causing me to forget the cloth entirely as she whipped it away and tossed it to the corner of the room. "What's wrong dear? We're all girls here, after all."
I was afraid that if I squirmed too much I'd fall off the table, but It was also impossible to just let her have her way right now, especially with an audience. At this point Deyha was a bit of a wild card. She could just as easily rescue me as she could simply join the dogpile, and I'd be at their mercy either way.
My battle with Carolyn for decency was interrupted as soft fabric was tugged over my head, blinding me for just a fraction of a second before my head popped through the neck hole of the shirt Deyha had brought for me.
"You'll have to excuse my wife." Deyha seemed to have no trouble brushing Carolyn's hands away. "You know how she is. Sharks, blood in the water. All that."
Carolyn sputtered indignantly but Deyha paid her no mind, nudging her aside and holding my hips as I worked my arms through the shirt to their respective holes.
Said shirt was huge, and softer by far than the dress I'd been wearing. The sensation of the fabric sliding over the bandages on my shoulder and side was strange, but it certainly wasn't anything more than I could handle.
"You're no fun." Carolyn whined.
"And you can be a little too pushy sometimes. Besides, regardless of how ready and willing Maddie might be right now, I outright refuse to let you endanger the clinic with that sort of behavior."
"What do you mean?"
Deyha gave Carolyn the side eye as she retrieved the shorts she'd brought.
"I mean no fucking in the clinic."
"We can be quiet--" Carolyn continued to argue, "--and we have all the materials to sanitize after."
Deyha knelt and pulled the shorts past my hooves up to my knees before letting me take the waistband and hop down from the table to finish getting dressed. I'd gotten pretty good at tying the drawstring above my tail, so I didn't even really have to focus on it as I cinched the equally baggy shorts in place.
Deyha gave me some space and closed in on Carolyn, backing her up against the sink. "I'm pretty sure you have already demonstrated on multiple occasions that you have no intention of keeping quiet."
"I am fully capable of--"
Deyha spoke over Carolyn now "but you haven't been gagging Maddie, so sound levels are still a concern-- no offense." She glanced at me, charming smile back in full force.
"You… heard?" It was hard to tell if my face was warmer now or if it had just been burning for the last few minutes.
"One of the non-resident staff tattled."
"God damn it." Carolyn grumbled. "Who was it?"
Deyha shook her head. "We don't do reprisal for whistleblowers here, love."
"I'm sorry." I picked up the dress and hugged it to my chest.
"It's okay, Maddie." Deyha smirked. "I know my wife is irresistible."
"And I must owe you at least three bites at this point." Carolyn chimed in.
"Let's put a pin in that." Deyha held her arms out, standing between Carolyn and me like a wall. "Maddie and I still have plans this evening and I'd prefer her intact for them."
"We do?"
"Mhmm." Deyha held Carolyn's shoulders and bent down to kiss her forehead. "Will you give her amnesty? For me?"
Carolyn scowled. "But I want my nom noms."
"She did just patch me up." I tried not to worry about the way Carolyn's expression lit up. "If she promises to be gentle I think we could settle the tab real quick."
Carolyn nodded eagerly, just as Deyha groaned and shook her head.
"Fine. Don't say I didn't try to rescue you."
Carolyn wormed her way past Deyha in no time and backed me up against the table.
"Whoa, hey--" I leaned backwards as she continued to advance, bracing the edge of the table as she wrapped her arms around me.
She buried her face between my breasts, scooping up under the left one with her hand as she pressed her teeth in gently, reminiscent of the very first time she bit me. This time however the thin cotton of the tshirt gave just the slightest protection from her teeth and my chest wasn't nearly small enough to simply slip free now.
She kept the pressure light though, mostly leaving behind a wet spot as she slipped her arm behind my back and went for my shoulder next. "It won't be much longer before your milk comes in." she murmured against my neck.
I wanted to hold her in turn, but she had me so far off balance that I didn't think I could spare a hand from supporting myself against the table. It certainly didn't help that I had to fight so hard against the urge to go limp when she bit me.
"Relax." she murmured into my shoulder.
"I've already taken a spill once today, I'm really not keen on ah~" I trailed off as she took her third and final bite. This time my hooves did slip, and I fell free of Carolyn's teeth. Pain flared in my shoulders and my right arm reverberated as my elbow knocked the table, but something warm and firm caught me under the hips before I fell all the way down to the step stool.
Carolyn was giggling as Deyha grunted and lifted me into a bridal style carry.
I looped an arm around Deyha's neck and rubbed at my shoulder with my free hand as Deyha hefted me higher in her embrace.
"Satisfied?" I squinted at Carolyn as I waited for Deyha to set me back down, but she only readjusted her grip.
I squirmed as Carolyn grabbed the base of my tail and pulled, and the sensation was only intensified as Deyha turned to pull me away from her reach.
"Now I'm satisfied." Carolyn picked up my dress from where I'd dropped it but made no move to hand it to me, even pulling it back as I reached for it. "I'm having it cleaned and mended, remember?"
"Fine." My voice came out breathy, and I hid my burning cheeks on Deyha's shoulder. She smelled so nice. Not good exactly, but the earthy plant fragrance mixed with fresh sweat comforted me; even as it stung my nose and eyes. I rubbed my face in her shirt anyways, inviting in the puffy allergy sensation as a sort of self destruction knowing that it would cover for the other ways I was being made to flush hot and leaky.
I spasmed with a suppressed sneeze and squeezed my eyes shut through the pain.
"Whoa." Caroyln snagged a couple paper towels from the dispenser and handed them to me. "Try not to blow your eardrums out over a little hay fever, yeah?"
I nodded and blew my nose, causing another sneeze that I didn't suppress this time. "Sorry."
"We just settled the tab, Maddie." Deyha chuckled and headed for the door. "Let's get you cleaned up before you hurt yourself."
"Have fun you two." Carolyn stepped out into the hall after us to wave, broadcasting her salacious tone for the whole clinic.
Once I was sure we were out of her earshot I relaxed into Deyha's embrace. I figured if she wasn't going to put me down I could at least enjoy the ride.
"I'm sorry for forgetting about my allergies."
"It's okay, love. Don't worry about it."
"But I keep making more work for you and Carolyn. It's not fair that I keep making myself more than you could have possibly bargained for."
I was shaken bodily as Deyha laughed. "I'd argue that being more than we bargained for has worked out in everyone's favor."
"That's not what I meant--"
"But it's what I mean. And it's what I'm sure Carolyn feels as well."
"If I'd told you from day one that I had grass allergies would you have really still invited me?"
Deyha shrugged. "Why wouldn't I?"
"It's a complication!"
She shook her head. "And I could just as easily argue that wanting to come to a farm despite knowing grass makes you miserable makes an even better reason to have you here."
"That makes no sense." I pulled my arm from around Deyha's neck and refolded the paper towel to blow my nose again. It was quickly becoming a very gross faucet.
"Sure it does. We wanted you here because you wanted to be here. Cost-benefit analysis never came into it."
"It should have, considering that you're running a business." I mumbled.
Deyha pulled me closer so that she could bump my forehead with hers. "Respectfully, Maddie, you're in no position to lecture me on business."
"Because I'm such a failure in--"
"No," She cut me off. "I mean your literal position. In my arms and at my mercy." She stopped near the door separating the clinic from the admin building. "Give me a reason not to throw you in the swimming pool."
"Because my bandages aren't waterproof?"
"Try again." She began to head back through the clinic toward the physical therapy area.
"It will get the pool water dirty?"
"Not my concern."
I struggled against her grip as she carried me across the weight room, but it was like iron now.
"I don't want to get wet!" I whined.
"What happened to shower time?"
"That's not what I meant! Deyha‽" My voice echoed off the tile walls of the small pool room as Deyha backed us through the door and stood next to the edge.
"One more try." Her eyes sparkled with mirth as I tried to hold onto her now.
"Because you love me?"
Her grip loosened and she finally set me down. "I do love you." She bent forward to give me a kiss, but before I could wrap my arms around her again, I felt her hands on my hips.
"Wait--" she laughed as she shoved me, sending me out of reach in an instant and careening back first into the cold water.
I had begun to shiver as we arrived at the showers. I of course towelled off before leaving the pool area to minimize dripping in the rest of the clinic, but I hadn't thought to bring the towel with me to the bath-house.
"You're a butt." I repeated for what must have been the dozenth time as Deyha held the door open for me. She only smirked.
"Mhmm. I'm going to go grab some clothes and towels, what should I get for you?"
"We could have just gone to the barn before coming here."
"Oh well. Requests?" She blocked me into the bathhouse now, not-so-subtly indicating this would be a solo adventure for her.
"My robe should be hanging on some doorknob or chair in my room and you're welcome to search my closet or dresser for whatever you'd like me to wear beyond that."
"Perfect." She left me alone in the changing room.
I debated following after her, just to see how she'd react, but I knew the result would be unchanged and I'd only be subjecting myself to more allergen-filled breeze if I stepped outside.
I picked a shower stall at random and peeled off the shirt and shorts Deyha had loaned me.
I amused myself with the loud slap they made against the bench when I held them out flat and dropped them next to each other. But I also knew I'd probably want to use the bench later, so I folded and twisted them to wring out as much water as possible before hanging them up on towel hooks.
Satisfied, I turned to face the elephant in the room, or rather the mirror. From what I could tell, the shower stalls were a hodge-podge of different styles, ranging from static overhead sprays that simulated rain, to detachable shower heads and sprayer combos. The stall I'd chosen today was arranged for sitting, with a small movable stool, a bucket, a combo faucet\shower head, and this massive mirror.
I entertained the idea of a nice epsom soak for my hooves, but Deyha had told me early on that soaking leads to softening and cracking. Maybe I could print some sort of orthotic, but I really wanted to avoid a painkiller regimen.
I couldn't figure out how Deyha just walked around full speed. Her hooves had to be at least somewhat similar to mine, right? Yet she seemed to get around just as fast as anybody with no apparent difficulty. I hoped it wasn't simply a matter of me needing to toughen up, but it wasn't unbelievable that I might need to build calluses.
The version of me in the mirror was frowning when I looked up, and not in a cute way. It was hard to not think the word "freak" as I assessed the reflection, especially since there was a wild quality to my appearance with the wet hair and fur. I honestly looked more like a satyr, like someone had made a shitty live action reboot of Hercules and I was cast as Phil or whoever the fuck it was.
Freak.
It didn't feel like reclaiming an insult, and I wondered why I so freely attached derogatory remarks to myself that I didn't even think of toward other people. I didn't think Carolyn or Deyha was a freak when I first met them, but perhaps I was a bit star-struck. Why wasn't I in awe now? It's not that I wanted to be so vain… but seeing a heavily modded person in the reflection didn't make me think "wow cool."
Why was the reflection just a "person" anyways? Despite introducing myself as nonbinary the day I arrived on the farm, I was the only person here not using she/her to describe myself.
"Girl." I muttered under my breath. I sounded irritated about it.
I took a deep breath, pushing away the feeling of looking and sounding ridiculous.
"Girl." I stated it again. At least it sounded like a neutral assertion of fact in that tone.
The 'girl' in the mirror was tense.
I shook my head and pulled my hair up and back between the little horns I'd grown. Carolyn had said she changed so much about my face, and yet I could only list off the things she'd tweaked from memory. Was my brow less pronounced? Had my jawline softened?
I lifted my chin and sought out the little bump that always appeared on my throat, but… well… it was there, but only just. I certainly knew exactly where to look for it, but I'd sought it out as an item on a list, not as a feature that caught any sort of attention.
I smiled. It didn't meet my eye in the reflection but I relaxed as I held my hand over my neck. There weren't any poking hairs here, and my skin was smooth, if a little cold and clammy after all the wind chill from before. I squished my cheeks and stuck out my tongue at my reflection, and it felt playful. I rubbed my face and massaged my brow and when I opened my eyes again the smile felt bigger and more real.
It didn't make all that much sense to compare myself to a guy satyr after all. I mean, the cartoon had a pretty big butt like me, but I had a rack-- boobs-- a chest? Whatever, just like the earth, I was far from flat. My waist even tapered in the tiniest bit just because my hips had widened. Before I'd joined the farm I'd had a bit of a gut, and somewhere along the way I'd picked up the sort of obsession with waist band sizes that results in fat hanging over an over-tightened belt. Now, with the healthier food and little bit of daily walking I was still round, but I hadn't worn any constricting clothes while everything had reshaped. I had creases from sitting, but I felt more plush, especially with the strawberry blond fur fading out into what I think is called a happy trail? The fur on my back was oddly patchy, forming a path to my shoulders and up my neck that didn't quite reach my sides.
Still, I wasn't quite happy with my proportions yet. My ears were much larger than my horns, and I was beginning to wonder if the idea of having handlebars was really enough to justify the nuisance of bumping them on every little thing. My shoulders still felt too wide, and most of the height I'd lost seemed to have come from my legs reshaping, leaving my upper body seeming overly long in contrast. It wasn't helping that the fur along my shoulders and arms added a little bit of volume too. Maybe I just needed to get a sketch pad and draw out the shape I wanted to be to compare against reality. Or maybe it was just something about my perspective relative to the mirror.
I eased myself down onto the little stool and inspected the strange faucet. The little pictograms were fairly intuitive so it wasn't too difficult to get it started on hot water and direct the flow to the handheld head. Once the water was warm enough to tolerate I began dousing myself and I sighed as the temp continued to rise to a stinging heat that reddened my skin. I held the handle in both hands against the top of my head, resting my elbows on the low counter while I let the scalding water cascade down my back and tail. I knew it was wasteful, but I wasn't going to be soaking in the hot water after this so I'd have to get my relaxing out of the way in here instead.
I heard the main door of the bathhouse open and didn't look up as familiar hoofsteps sounded on the tile and non-slip mats. I did however jump slightly as the curtain immediately behind me was swept aside and someone joined me in my stall.
"H-hey Deyha--" I cut the water and hugged the showerhead to my chest as I half turned to look at her. "-- What are you… did you need something?"
"Hmm" She unclipped her tool belt and hung it up "Do I need something…" she mused
I turned away and hung up the showerhead. "If this is your preferred stall I can--"
Deyha cut me off with a laugh. "Did you consider that my preferred stall might just be whichever one you happen to be in?"
"I didn't want to assume." I rested a hand on the faucet. I wasn't anywhere close to knowing what to do with the situation.
"Would you like me to wash your back?"
"I uh… I mean I was going to do that for you but…"
"But you've already started showering so let's take care of you first, hmm?"
I pursed my lips. The logic was simple. Elegant. And yet…
"Fine."
"Far be it from me to push your boundaries, dear. If you'd rather I didn't, say so." Her tone had taken on a playful lilt.
I twisted on the stool to face her properly and squinted up at her. "What if my boundary is not wanting to express boundaries?"
She still had her shirt on, which helped with eye contact for me.
"Then you're fucked." she shrugged and stepped past me, sitting on the low counter where the faucet was mounted.
I began to turn back toward the mirror but she laid a hand gently on my shoulder, holding me in place. "Ah ah ah, we already agreed we're taking care of you first. Hand me the washcloth."
"I made no such agreement."
I handed her the washcloth anyway, and held the edges of the stool as she popped the top of some soap bottle.
"You know those buttons on web-pages where if you hit continue you're agreeing to terms and conditions?"
I rolled my eyes, safe in the knowledge that she wouldn't see. "And you're going to tell me that the washcloth constituted an agreement."
"Exactly, you catch on fast."
I made a grumble in the back of my throat and set the point aside for the moment. At the very least I'd be able to follow her example afterwards, since wherever she touched me was likely fair game for me to do in turn.
The washcloth was still warm when she began rubbing my back and I hunched forward. I thought I knew what to expect. I knew what back rubs felt like, and I knew what a warm washcloth felt like, but the combination was more than the sum of its parts, particularly with how the washcloth tugged and re-aligned the fur on my back. I spread my hooves out over the tile for more stability and held the stool's front edge now with both hands. It helped me keep from swaying, sure, but the pressure and feeling of straddling something did not make it easy to hold still.
I opened my eyes. I still wasn't used to seeing curves when I looked down, and the sight of my breasts pressed together certainly contributed to putting me in a mood. I moved one arm to wrap around my stomach, cradling them together as I basked in the touch on my back.
"You're breathing pretty heavy there." Deyha's hand slowed on my back, and trailed down to rest on my hip, still just barely insulated by the washcloth.
"I uh… Yeah this is working me up a little I guess." My face burned with the admission. I was so fucking desperate that I hadn't even taken the five seconds to come up with a shitty lie.
"Is that a problem?" Deyha's touch disappeared and I mourned its absence.
"N-no, It's fine. I'll be fine. I'll take care of it later."
"Take care of it?" Her tone dipped to conspiratorial.
I groaned and shook my head. "Forget I said anything."
"Don't you want me to 'take care of it' for you?"
I scoffed. "I can hardly-- We Just made things official today, are you seriously planning to… uh…" I trailed off. I couldn't help but think there was the slightest chance we weren't talking about the same thing.
"Correction." Deyha's washcloth returned on my lower back, and I had to brace against the stool with the firm pressure she applied. "You realized we are official today. That's hardly the same thing."
"Deyha~"
She wrapped the washcloth around the base of my tail and pulled down. "I'm surprised you're acting like this is sudden and unexpected. You suggested bathtime after all."
I whined as she pulled on my tail again, causing me to rub myself on the stool as I fought for stability.
"Were you not grinding on my leg earlier?"
I ignored the question. The heat in my core was becoming an inferno, and I had a feeling I'd be making very undignified decisions soon if Deyha didn't beat me to it.
The washcloth disappeared and I heard the small squeak of the faucet being turned on again. The warm water hit my tail first, and then I felt the stream sweep side to side as she rinsed from the bottom up, occasionally going back down before resuming the slow climb to my shoulders.
"Not too hot? Not too cold?" Deyha asked.
I shook my head. The water spilled over my shoulders and down my chest now, forming little rivers as well as she rinsed all the soap away.
"You must be exhausted." she cooed. "Here, sit up and I'll do your front too."
The faucet turned off and when I straightened I was leaning back against the inside of one of her thighs. My chest heaved with my rapid breathing. Leaving me a little dizzy as I knew I was beginning to hyperventilate. All my muscles were going weak and I slumped and nearly slid off the stool as she placed the washcloth on my shoulder.
"Ope, don't want you falling. Here, sit in my lap."
I nodded and carefully stood, bracing on her shoulders as I got my hooves under me. The way she held her knees together now I figured she probably expected me to sit sideways across her thighs, But I ignored that. I pressed my knee between hers and knelt on her thigh, grabbing fistfulls of her shirt before letting my hooves slip away and just resting all my weight on her.
She giggled as she began with the wash cloth again, lathering my arms even as I hung onto her, soaking her shirt as she did. Her free hand covered one of mine, gently pulling until I released her so that she could actually reach my chest. So I held her other knee instead as she rubbed the cloth across my collar.
"Breathe, Maddie." She rested her hand on my shoulder, "Don't hyperventilate, I'll take care of you real soon, I promise."
It felt like forever before I had control of my gasping breaths, and as my head cleared my skin cooled as well.
"Maybe…" I couldn't meet her eyes. "I should wash my front myself, just so I don't pass out."
"Is that what you want?"
"To not pass out? Yeah?" I tilted my head to the side.
"I'm asking if you want me to touch you less."
"No."
"Would it be easier to sit still and breathe after you've orgasmed?"
"I… uh… maybe?"
"Then let's try that." She stated it so matter-of-fact. And I wasn't sure how to feel about how casual this all was to her.
It's not that I expected her to act differently, but I wasn't sure it was all that romantic for a first time to seem so ordinary to her.
"We didn't… like, already fuck and I blacked out or something right?"
Deyha shook me in her lap with her laughter. "No! Are you prone to amnesia or something? No, I'm pretty sure this is a first for us unless we both forgot. Why do you ask?"
"You just seem so composed, like we've done this a hundred times or something."
"Well there's a few things we've done a hundred times. You've been here-- what, six months now? That's well over a hundred mornings I've told you 'Hello', and it's not impossible that we've gone on a hundred walks together, though I do doubt we've walked quite that much. I haven't even seen you naked a hundred times unless we count every time I've looked back on the pictures you sent."
"You kept those?" My body flushed hot all over again.
"Yes, Maddie." She laughed. "I've kept them, though I hope you'll forgive me for not setting one as my wallpaper for my phone."
"Deyhaaaa" I leaned forward and hid my face on her shoulder. "Why do you keep saying weird stuff?"
"Perhaps that's just what I do instead of hyperventilating when I'm excited about something."
"But you do it all the time!" I rubbed my face on her shoulder. The scales on her shoulder were hard, but the shirt was enough to keep it from being uncomfortable
She hummed and held a hand on my back.
I relaxed into the touch, easing my grip on her shirt as I forced myself to untense muscles and tune out lust.
"Do you remember when you were on my lap for the first bit of the harvesting we did together?"
"Yes?" I murmured into her shirt, struggling to follow the subject change.
"You were straddling my thigh, though facing the other way I suppose, and when I checked if you were okay you said we could keep going…"
I settled for a nod. I hoped she wouldn't circle back to this.
"Were you grinding on my lap?"
"Maybe." I mumbled. "Sorry."
She laughed, but continued to hold me. "It's okay! I suspected, but I wasn't sure how much it was really doing for you."
"It was doing a lot." I sat back. "I didn't set out to give you a lap dance if that's what you're thinking, but the vibrations and pressure were very much getting to me and I was pretty thoroughly compromised by the time you stopped the combine."
"Awwww…"
"Don't patronize me! It's not my fault that I'm like this!"
"Blaming Carolyn now?"
"No! I mean, maybe a little, it's usually not disruptive though so it's not really a problem."
"Should I talk to her--"
"No!"
"But if you think she's done something to your biology that you don't like then that's a pretty big deal."
I squinted at Deyha. I couldn't quite tell if she was serious or fucking with me.
"That is, unless you like being this way."
Definitely fucking with me.
"Fine! I like it! Sue me!"
Deyha chuckled and rested her hands on my hips. "I'm not interested in the paperwork, dear."
"I didn't mean liter~ah!" I broke off as she pulled my hips, dragging me toward her across the top of her thigh.
"Sorry, what was that?"
Just as I was about to retort she shifted me again, pushing this time. I expected the fur on her thighs to poke or tangle in some way but all that I got was the excruciating friction. I fell forward against her again as she slipped her hand between my legs. I squirmed as her fingertips pressed against my clit and that was all the opening she needed to get her hand fully under me.
"Deyha~" my voice was between a gasp and a whine. "Why are you like this?"
"Carolyn's bad influence, no doubt. What are you going to do about it?"
I spent a couple seconds trying to come up with a sassy retort before deciding I had better things to focus on, specifically her index and middle finger which were pressing just a little harder than the rest of her fingers. I braced both hands on her thigh so that I could lift myself up and Deyha took that as her cue to press inward. However, before she could do anything further I sat again, trapping her hand between us as I repositioned to hold her shoulders.
I rocked my hips forward, letting my hooftips skate across the tiles while I relied on my grip on her shirt to keep me balanced and upright. Luckily, Deyha understood the assignment, and she helped steady me with her free hand as I rode her fingers.
I imagined that I would be slow and methodical, putting on a show as I danced in her lap, but the reality was I lost coordination and composure immediately. I moaned into her shoulder, shuddering erratically as some primitive instinct took over my motor functions in the pursuit of friction.
My cries reverberated back to me off of the tile walls, high pitched and practically pornagraphic in how breathy and needy they sounded. I wasn't even acting, and I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever have the composure to fake an orgasm. Not with this libido and sensitivity. Not with people like Carolyn and Deyha playing me like an instrument.
I could see my reflection over Deyha's shoulder, even with my eyes half closed. I was a mess, tongue practically hanging out as I panted and moaned, but even the embarrassment from that didn't take me out of the moment.
Each little movement of my hips puffed up a thundercloud in my core, tightening and twisting with a heat that I could neither contain nor release. Deyha's free hand was holding my head to her shoulder now, and my moans choked off as she held a fistful of my hair, tugging pleasantly at my scalp as she pulled my head back. I whined as her fingers stilled within me, and without her pulling and pushing my spasms became fruitless.
I tried to channel all the pitiful need and desire I could manage as I sat up enough to meet her eye, and I saw the excitement mirrored in her gaze now.
"Please." I begged, letting her pull my face to hers. I was too out of breath to kiss her properly, so it was relatively chaste compared to our other activities. My head fell to her shoulder again as she held my lower back and moved against me again. All my strength went into pushing myself back up after she pulled me down.
I hung off her neck as she worked her fingers inside of me, she followed my rhythm, even when I wasn't strong enough to go the pace that I wanted, but it was enough. More than enough. She pulled hard at the base of my tail, working against the fingers of her other hand deep inside me, and that was all I could take. Warmth rocketed up my spine as the bundle of energy in my core burst, splashing through my veins as the last of my strength faded.
Gradually her fingers stilled as my twitching and crying faded away.
I shifted my knees up to brace on the low counter that Deyha was sitting on and once she had extracted her fingers I straddled her lap, holding on for dear life as I caught my breath.
Deyha rubbed my back as I calmed down. As she'd predicted, I was able to handle the touch without getting over excited now, and I focused on releasing tension in my shoulders and hips as she held me.
"You know…" Deyha broke the silence after a minute, "I had actually planned to use the shower head with the massage function on you as well, but I wonder if that might have just caused a full on aneurysm."
"I appreciate the mercy." I sat up and held her shoulders. Her shirt was blotched with wet spots and probably some soap as well now, but I had managed to not tear it. "Now it's your turn."
She shrugged. "If you're still up for it."
"Hah," I braced against her as I climbed off the counter. "As if I'd let that go unreciprocated. And besides, just because I can't soak in the tub doesn't mean you shouldn't."
"I was just going to pass on it, honestly."
"Nonsense." I righted the stool and collected the bucket from where I'd kicked it aside. "I'll just bring a chair into the bath area to hang out while you soak. It will be like a low-intensity sauna for me or something."
"Really?"
"Of course!" I beamed at her. "I mean, I don't want to force you to have a soak if you don't want to but I'm excited to hang out anywhere. So how do I wash your back?"
Deyha finally pulled off her shirt, revealing the muddy brown scales that wreathed her shoulders and chest. I knew before that she had heavy armor on her back, and I knew that they covered her shoulders too, but this was the first time I realized that they covered almost all her vital organs, even joining up under her arms like a vest that specifically covered her rib cage. Unlike her lower back though, the scales over her chest didn't quite completely overlap, and there were dozens of small patches of skin between the scales. The cuticles, for lack of a better word, zig zagged up and down across her chest. Each scale was like a diamond that had the bottom cut off, so the result was a sweater sort of pattern of little pyramids tessellated tip to tip.
"You're staring." Deyha smirked.
"Sorry! Sorry, I just. I didn't realize-- Sorry."
"It's fine, Maddie. I'm just giving you a hard time." She stretched and tossed her shirt past me to the benches where I'd laid out my wet clothes.
"To answer your question though, I generally just spray water up under the scales to clear out any trapped dust or whatever. They grow like gigantic fingernails and I've never particularly cared to polish them."
"Oh, so have you been trimming the scales in the front?"
"Yep. I trim what I can reach and Carolyn helps out with whatever I can't."
"That seems massively inconvenient…"
Deyha nodded and repositioned to sit on the stool. She had to maneuver a bit awkwardly to get her scorpion tail tucked away under the counter. "It will probably be easiest if we draw the curtain and I just curl forward while you power wash under the scales."
"Uh, sure. Yeah we can do that."
I maneuvered onto the low counter while Deyha pulled the curtain closed and fussed with the bottom edge. Now that I had a view of her back I could certainly see the contrast. Several scales were warped and wavy at the edges, and unlike the front these had been left in a vaguely diamond shape with each overlapping parts of the two below it.
"So are these scales actually helpful in some way?"
Deyha shrugged. The plates weren't hard enough to make an audible scrape, but the way they moved still looked unsettling. "They wouldn't stop a bullet, but they do an okay job of diffusing pressure from strikes and helping blades skate off."
"You've… tested it?"
"I haven't been shot for science if that's what you mean." She put her head down and leaned forward, curling up more than I expected she would be able to, given her frame and the scales on her chest.
I turned the water back on and set the temperature near the max. I was as gentle as possible prising up one of the plates near her shoulder.
"They aren't sensitive." Deyha demonstrated, pulling up a scale farther than I ever would have dared.
"That's so weird!"
She only nodded and put her head back down as I switched the sprayer over to the massage jets and focused on the skin beneath the plates. I was continually surprised with how rigid they were, because toward her sides they waved around a whole lot. They mostly followed her curves but some of them seemed warped for no reason at all.
"Are you due for a trim?" I was about halfway down her back now, so it didn't move too much when she shrugged.
"They haven't quite become a problem, so I wouldn't say so. Why?"
"I could trim them, I bet. Does Carolyn just go at them with shears? Or is there a gigantic toenail clipper that gets them the exact shape you want?"
"Hah, that would be handy, but we just use the same sort of shears they use for trimming horse hooves. Gods it would be so funny to have gigantic clippers the size of your arm that have the massive flat lever and the built in file."
"Maybe I'll have some made some time."
Deyha chuckled but didn't comment further.
As I worked my way down it became a little difficult to reach and target under the scales with the shower head so I decided I'd make multiple passes rather than hope to get everything all at once. I started again from the top, Easing my fingers up under the plates to massage the cuticle-like roots.
"So… I get the feeling you don't like the armor so much. Have you looked into like… surgically removing them? I know you don't want to change any mods so that you can keep up with the venom, but I can't imagine having all this armor for no reason."
Deyha shrugged again. "It's not so bad. Certainly not worth the trouble of removing."
"I find that hard to believe, but I won't press for now."
She chuckled. "Thanks I guess."
The shower head had done an okay job, but I had a feeling I could do better with the washcloth, so I cut the water and went for the one she had used for me. "Any preference on soap?"
"Nope."
I picked out a bottle of body wash at random and lathered before folding the cloth once and using both thumbs to hold it up and under one of the scales near her shoulder.
"That feels weird."
"Bad weird?" I stopped moving.
"No, just different. It does seem a bit tedious though."
"You're worth the effort." I pressed again, working my thumbs in small circles before going to the next tile. A lot of dead skin was coming off with the washcloth now so I switched sections of the cloth or rinsed every two or three scales as I worked from top to bottom.
"You don't get ingrown scales, or… hang-scales? I'm not sure what you would even call them."
She shook her head. "I did when I wore backpacks but I haven't had an incident in years now."
"Interesting. Instead of the toolbelt?"
"I guess, because it was back when I was enlisted, shortly after I grew the scales in the first place. I suppose it could have just been growing pains in that respect."
I chewed my lip as I debated asking or just living with curiosity. I couldn't imagine being in the military at all, and, being the subject of what seemed to be miserable super soldier experiments sounded like hell. I doubted I'd handle it, and it made me wonder if she'd lost friends or acquaintances the hard way during her time there. Plus, given how casually she talked about bearing pain, I couldn't trust that this wasn't already deep in the painful memory territory for her.
Shelving all talks about mods seemed like the best course forward.
I washed out all the soap and rubbed both hands down her back. It might have been my imagination, but the plates seemed to be looser, more readily shifting under my fingers and against each other. Deyha took a deep breath and sat up, stretching both arms above her head before standing.
"Carolyn said you gave good back rubs, but I kinda thought she was making one of her signature euphemisms. And honestly, I wasn't sure I'd ever be on the receiving end of one."
"I… I'm glad it was nice, but why wouldn't I do this for you?"
"It wasn't that you wouldn't try, but rather that I didn't think you'd get very far." She picked up the shower head and rinsed herself down again. "It makes me wonder how nice it would feel to not have the scales… but it also makes me think that having the scales isn't so bad if I have you caring for me. Much to think about."
"Careful, you're skating down the slippery slope that leads to me jamming my fingers up under your scales every chance I get."
"Hah. I can hardly wait to see how that goes." Water plinked on the tile sporadically as she turned off the faucet and did a cursory wipe to coax some of the water out of her fur. "I, for one, am ready to get on with the soaking. Care to join me?"
"What about your fur? I mean, yes, I'll bring a chair in, but we aren't finished pre-washing."
"I know the cleaning lady." she waved dismissively and collected a towel. "Besides, I already picked out all the plant matter."
I wanted to argue that simply knowing who would have to clean up after didn't make it better, but I was also having a hard time mustering the courage to confront her about it. Deyha certainly never seemed like the type to casually make work for other people.
By the time I got dressed and found a chair, Deyha was submerged up to her chin in the bath.
“This is the part where I say ‘I needed this’ or something. Right?” she cracked an eye open to look at me before relaxing again.
“I… guess that's a thing people say? But I think now it would seem a bit performative and hollow.” I pushed up the sleeves on my robe and rested my elbows on the edge of the bath.
I dipped my finger tips in the water and flicked the little drops of water off into the middle of the pool.
"Hey, no splashing or horseplay."
I dipped my fingers again and flicked the water at Deyha this time. "What are you? The lifeguard?"
"No body of water is safe without a lifeguard."
I groaned "That's so stupid."
"It's a meme from some porn I think."
"Not better." I folded my arms and rested my chin. "I wish I could soak in the tub too. If I hadn't been stupid then I--" I trailed off as Deyha looked at me. "What?"
"That sounded suspiciously like self-deprecation, Madeline."
I rolled my eyes at the full name treatment. "Yeah well…" no snappy comebacks came to mind so I decided to drop it. "It just would have been nice, is all."
She nodded and sank further into the water for a second before standing and stretching. "Okay, all done."
"You can't be serious."
"Very serious. I'm gonna go rinse off."
"But you only soaked for like five minutes at most!"
"You're welcome to stay and enjoy the steam." She climbed over the edge of the basin and shook water off her legs one at a time before using her hands to squeegee off a little more.
"I didn't say that to guilt you into getting out early."
"I know." she shrugged. "But I'm done here all the same. Do you want to go get a bite to eat?"
"I… Sure I guess. I'm sorry for guilting you into getting out early." I stepped aside so that Deyha could leave the room, but she backed me up against the wall instead, placing a hand next to my head as she leaned in.
"You didn't guilt me."
"You can't honestly expect me to believe--"
She drew closer until our noses touched. "My dear Maddie, I'm afraid I have this thing called free will that lets me make my own decisions. I hear you do too."
"I… Uh…"
"So what do you want to do now?" Her breath was warm on my lips and I closed my eyes as she held my chin.
However, after a few seconds she hadn't moved further.
"Kiss me?"
"You want to kiss yourself? Interesting." Her hand disappeared from my face and she began to straighten up.
"No! You kiss me!"
She chuckled. "Okay dear, but only because I want to. Not because you asked."
I wanted to tell her how I didn't care about the why, but I had more important things to do with my lips.
Wet spots were forming all over my shirt and shorts as she held me, and I whimpered against her lips as she palmed my chest.
All too soon though she backed off, leaving me panting and horny all over again as if she hadn't just fingered me senseless a few minutes ago.
She seemed to be only holding me to make sure I didn't collapse.
I made an effort to compose myself and support my own weight. "What do you want to do next?"
"Already eager to be done?"
"No! I didn't say that!"
"Mhmm."
"Answer the damn question!" My voice turned squeaky as she looked at me through half-lidded eyes.
"After this…" Deyha spoke painfully slowly, as though she'd started talking before even deciding on an answer. "I'd like to snuggle up in bed with my beloveds and just chat."
"Chat? Like… talk about our days and such?"
"Yeah. Or enjoy quiet time with our own things together… but just the three of us."
"And if Carolyn turns it into an orgy?"
Deyha chuckled. "Heh, as if it couldn't possibly be you or me."
"If either one of us was good at initiating then we would have done all of this months ago."
"You say that as though all this time was wasted."
"I-- well…"
"I'm just giving you a hard time. Let's head back."
"Okay."