Some Girl Time [Closed/M]

"How might I be of service to you?"

By the gods, this garden and these trees…

She couldn’t help but let her eyes and then her head tilt upwards, towards the blooming foliage of the wisteria that dominated her field of view and almost completely obscured the tiny woman who stood out, boldly, as not being plant matter.

Ugh, doe eyes.  

They were the only thing that could rival that stupid, furrowed brow, scrunchy faced look that people got when they were determined to do something that was very dumb, but they hadn’t quite yet come to terms with, on her list of ‘Things to Hate About People’s Faces’.

Despite her prompt exit from the crater, Karaudo may have been exaggerating her own well being just a tad.  She wanted, with every fiber of her body, to just drop to her knees and curl up on her side for a nice, long nap.  She didn’t even care about creature comforts like a pillow or a blanket or a mattress or laying in a sensible position.  The cool grass and the warm sun would do just fine.

Her attention was lost in the magnificent boughs of the tree in the distance ; so lost she hadn’t even realized she had already reached the woman waiting for her.  The grass was beginning to thin out here, no doubt a side effect of such a prolific tree.

She was going to have to do it, to just keel over and nap.  She felt her knees start to buckle, the weakness surging (or draining?) through her but the woman addressed her as...a Shinigami?

“Don’t mistake the body glove for one of those sets of pajamas”, she said with a breathy tone, chest still heaving from the long walk out of her hole in the ground.

Karaudo had regarded her as a woman, and her body shape supported that, but she couldn’t have been more than five feet tall and probably only breached one hundred pounds by the slimmest of margins.  Her wave, white, almost platinum hair gave her an ethereal look except for much else about her seemed...real.

Her eyelids blinked once, just slightly longer than normal, with timing imperceptible to anyone who wasn’t looking at it, hoping to get a ready on this little woman with her second sight.  That’s what Karaudo did, after all, to gain her advantages.  However, instead of the gently flowing energy she expected to see from a Spiritually Aware Human shrine maiden?  Two things somewhere near #300-350 on her list of possibilities quickly asserted themselves.  

First ; this girl had a powerful soul within her.  A soul delicately practiced at being timid but apparently not for the sake of deception.  The energy pumping through her and shedding off of her even at rest was dramatic but so carefully restrained as to flow only a bit at a time, like a bird terrified of breaking its own cage and being faced with freedom.

Second ; the tree?  An absurd amount of spiritual energy was radiating out of the tree in the background.  Karaudo had never seen something like this in person, it just wasn’t the sort of space that Tokiyo hung out in despite his long life.  And if there were any trees like this in the Rukongai?  They were so much smaller and so much less significant as to not even register, or their reishi was absorbed by someone passively, or any other number of excuses.

They took her breath away.

Stunned silence was not quality she aspired to nor desired.  Regardless of wit, it had to be broken, after all, her host had asked a question.  She coughed once, dryly, her mouth and throat a bit parched and possibly still covered in her own blood.  “What is this place?”, her breathing now evening out and calming down.

She dropped her eyes back down to the woman, thinking it would be sensible to expect eye contact in order to avoid suspicion.  “I-...can I take a bath?”

Her shoulders slouched downward.

“A bath would be nice.”

Word count // 669 = 13 || 35

A weight pushed down onto her shoulders, causing her to buckle slowly until her hands were resting just above her knees.  Her hands were clammy now, the exertion of her walking having finally caught up to her.  The ears rang.  Ached.  Throbbed.  She could feel the vein in her neck pulsing in time with her heart as it normalized into a steady beat...droning, thumping, racing, pulling her body apart while the rest of her struggled to bring it back together.

Why now?  Unless its a ploy by my host or some trickery by this soul sucking tree?  But I didn’t see anything...not a damn trace of energy exchanging hands.  Why else would I feel so sapped all of the sudden?

Tokiyo…

It should have been obvious to her that she had never been anywhere near this far from her patron.  During their fight, she had stayed within a few dozen meters at all times and even under the worst of circumstances while in sword form it never amount to more than one or two hundred meters of distance.  Of course she was aware of that.

I don’t think this is what they had in mind when they said absence makes the heart grow fonder.

It had to be.  It explained why she had not recovered yet, it explained why she was already feeling exhausted after walking barely a mile, it covered the fluctuating vital signs...there mine as well have been a cheesy digital clock strapped to her counting down the hours, minutes, second ; she was living on marked time now.  And Karaudo Haretsu had no idea what would happen when those digits read zeroes, and she had no compulsion to find out.

She drew in a breath, ready to blurt out her plans to her host ; a straightforward attack against a clearly marked objective.  Get in the car and go.  Where was the nearest Senkaimon?  They would be all over the place in Tokyo and she might even be able to run into a Shini-  That’s it!  The Tracking Outpost!  Tokiyo had started setting it up in just the last week and it had to be entirely rifled with activity by now.  There was no way that could miss.  They would know what happened to him, and they would be able to get her home.  But she still had to make it there.

She closed her mouth as suddenly as she opened it.  What was this?  Hesitation?  No, but the feeling burped up from her stomach just the same.  It was not instinct ; it was the bludgeon of Tokiyo’s reason.  Maybe now that some of her better qualities had rubbed off on to him, she was naturally beginning to absorb some of his?

This body was the only one she’d be getting out here on Earth.  She needed to rest a moment and make sure it made it back to Tokiyo.

The young woman’s offer of choice could not have been more perfectly timed.

“Oh how I want to ask you to run ahead but I fear that I might curl up against a hedge or a tree and just pass right the fuck out of I do that.”  She rose from her bent over stance and put her hands on the small of her back, as if coaxing her spine to stop wobbling and allowing her to remain upright.

“Why don’t I let you lead the way?  I’ll just uh, stick on your three o’clock close enough to brace myself on your shoulder if I need it.”  She smiled a tired smile as she moved to the young woman’s right side with a deliberate lack of rush.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll get you the abbreviated version ; You may call me Cloud, if you like.  I’m sorry to drop in on you like this but your hospitality is appreciated and while it would be difficult for me to return the favor, you have my most sincere gratitude.”

The smile left her cheeks but it stayed on her mouth and reflected in her eyes.  She just didn’t have the free energy to offer the proper greeting and decorum, despite the well meaning display by her host so far.

“And before you do something silly like smiling politely and reassuring me you require no repayment, I may yet ask another burden of you.  If you cannot help, I understand and you need not explain.”

The tone left nothing to doubt ; conviction.  Perhaps accented with just the slighest, softest, faintest, most frayed traces of desperation.  Such is the signature of a woman who knew her options and had prepared herself for the unpleasant truth that may accompany one of those options being lost.

“I need to get into Tokyo after I clean up.  As close to downtown as I can.  I’m not in a rush, but I don’t have the resources to waste on dawdling.  Will you help me?”

Word count // 823 = 16 || 51

She could not help but let her eyes wander wider and wider as she stepped carefully through the shrine house.  An intimate bedroom unlike any other she’d stepped foot in before.  Not to say that it were either autentacious or extravagant on a level she had not experienced but rather from possessing a manifest charm that the cold halls of Karaudo’s own manor house could not replicate in a hundred lifetimes, living there on her own.

Someone made their home here and their love for it hung in every corner.

Advice was coming about how she could get into the city but it mine as well have been delivered in Portuguese ; Karaudo’s sense of direction was limited to ‘forward’, ‘around’, and ‘tactical withdrawal’.  One foot went in front of the other and she got where she hoped to go, eventually, depending on her desired haste.  But still, she had walked into the home of this tiny woman, a complete and total stranger, covered in dirt and confusion and asked her for help and she was...giving it.  She was doing everything short carrying Karaudo on her back and if the Zanpakuto Spirit hadn’t manifested such an abnormally lithe and limber of a body this tiny healer may tried to do just that.

She focused, tried to clear her head of the first thing that popped into her mind.  A habit Tokiyo had forced her to adopt.  ‘Trading Headspace’ he called it.  That was their deal, she would blurt out her instant analysis since she was in there here and now, and he would overlay whatever he worrisome bones had concocted to delay her impulse.  And then they would trade.  She’d clear her mind (if the luxury could be taken) and try to look deeper, at the reasons why he saw what he saw and why that worry came about.  And Tokiyo?  Well he’d do his best to improvise his quick thinking but the problem with quick thinking is that you can’t do much of it when you’re late to the draw.

‘The easiest bullet to dodge is the one never fired.’

Something of a personal motto of hers over the last few decades.

The details about the travel options became more clear.  Now she was at least hearing the words but Karaudo simply didn’t possess the context.  Four and a half hours to Tokyo?  By what?  Donkey caravan?  Train?  Boat?  Hot Air Balloon?  Only one of those thoughts popped into her head jokingly.

Her host mentioned stops.  So possibly a train?  Japan had a phenomenal rail system from her and Tokiyo had observed and she had ridden it occasionally to get from one large population center to the other on longer assignments when the paperwork of requesting a Senkaimon back to the Soul Society, in order to fill out the paperwork to request a Senkaimon to the second city was...too existentially tedious.

And then the moment of glory.

Sweet, victorious, life-giving glory.  The bathroom…

She was aware her mouth fell slightly agape but the idea that it wasn’t especially ladylike in the presence of her host was lost.  Along with her clothing.  Karaudo, or Cloud as she had introduced herself, reached up underneath her shoulderpads and flicked a couple notches and straps with a practiced hand that sent the bodice she was wearing clanking to the floor in two (intentional) pieces.  Her ardor was fixated on the bathtube, with its tempting columns of steam licking at her senses already and she had only just crossed the threshold of the room.  Saying nothing for the myriad of towels, fluffy and clean, waiting to wrap her up whenever she had had her fill of ‘recovering’.  Her eyes make a full pass of the room but truth be told she only circled back to the tub.

If a person knew nothing else about a Gothic style manor house they should keep two facts with them.  They are made with a lot of stone, and they can become very drafty.  Often the interiors are full of richly stained hardwoods that provide an impressive depth of color and sort of forced reverence for the somber implications of the architectural style but unless very explicit care was taken with regards to the creature comforts, all that left the inhabitants with were drafty, stone foyers, and isolated, cold, wood floored bedrooms.  But the bathroom…

Bathing chambers were a special place for Karaudo.  A quiet sanctuary tucked onto the west wing, second floor, with large windows of yellow tinted stained glass that perfectly caught and amplified the setting sun’s last, desperate touch.  Despite the otherwise cold, gray world she lived in it was that small room, immaculately tiled and adorned with carefully crafted porcelain fixtures, where she made her fortress against the stresses of the world that Tokiyo could do nothing to let out for her.

It felt so good to be warm.  And safe.  In that room perched in the corner with the light dancing on her in that bathtub that seemed to have been built just for her.

Today, this could be that bathtub.

She reached behind, dexterous arms wriggling in awkward ways, and she pulled a zipper that began at the back of her neck.  The trail of the seam ran down and to the right, curving drastically at the small of her back until it ended on the outside of her thigh, about a third of the way down her leg.

With articulation approaching instinct, she slipped both of her boots off as she finished pulling the zipper to its conclusion and stepped out of her body glove.  There, either unashamed or unaware of her nudity, she stood before her host.  She closed her mouth and bent over slightly to retrieve her shed clothing.

“You sound like you know your stuff, hon.  But a girl’s gotta deal with one problem at a time.”  She smiled at Sekai and placed a hand on her shoulder, as warm as the moment would allow her to be.  

“I don’t really know what to do with these but I can put them on again later,” she motioned to her body glove, now wadded in her hand, as she stepped towards the tub.  Without delay she climbed in slowly slide down into the tub until she was submerged to her collarbones.  The tension almost melting off of her as she descended.

Her head lolled back against the lip of the tub as she closed her eyes and just...enjoyed.

“We can do that train thingy if you’re up for an outing.  And uh, if you’re offering, some bread and a whole bunch of cool water would do my stomach and my body all kinds of right after this bath.”

Karaudo groaned subtly, more than once, as her body settled into its temporary stasis chamber.

“Is that a good idea?  The train thing?”  You did mean a train, right?”

Word count // 1151 = 23 || 74

She sat up on the bath, lifting her head from the rim of the tub without protest, despite her body aching to stay put.  Karaudo’s eyes opened to take in the room and her host in a new light, free from the grime and existential muck that had clung to her only minutes earlier.

Yes, yes, it’s a train.  Got it.

Her host questioned her meal choice, rather understandably ; It was purely a guess on her part.  Nutrition was not a thing that sprinkled through her daily thoughts.  She ate only when she felt like it, taking whatever metaphysical sustenance she needed directly from the health of Tokiyo.  If he was full and happy, so was she.  If he decided he didn’t want to eat for a week and was literally burning up his own body to sustain himself?  Well, she would know that too.  And she would make sure he did something about it.

She had it in her mind to interrupt Sekai and blurt out her question.  Why not?  She was on a limited timeframe.  But this woman was so damn polite that it made the ‘okay’ of being rude...shrink away.  Those fucking big, stupid, doe eyes that looked like they contained twelve gallons of tears just waiting to burst forth if she said something even remotely insulting.  The horror.

And so she waited.  But not a moment longer than it took for her to finish questioning the meal choice.

“So what’s your angle in all this?  What do get out of being such a good host to me?  If this was just to see me naked, it worked.”  She giggled, only slightly, as she dipped her hands into the bath water and cupped a couple pints to splash on her face and wet her hair.

She continued, water dripping down her face and running down her neck and off of her chin, “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful for your hospitality, quite the opposite really.  But I just don’t understand.  I can’t pay you anything directly...but I suppose I could mug someone for you?  Yes, that’s it!  I can trade service!  Or if you want a handfull of boob or something?”  She tried out her best, coy smile.  She was comfortable with joking about such things but there was a small pang of worry that her host could be offended by such, uh, candor.  Not that such a consideration would stop her from offering.

Karaudo splashed her face once more with a handful of water, smiling, breathing deeply and letting the steam fill her lungs while the possible shock of her question melted away.

“I also don’t rightly know a thing about proper nutrition.  I do know about some tasty stuff,” she paused, reflecting on the ghost of meals past.  “but I’ve never needed to cover that food pyramid or the table of bullshit vitamin requirements or whatever.  Looks good?  Eat it.  Do sit-ups until equilibrium is achieved.  I also don’t do the eating, my buddy Tokiyo does that for me.  Was that weird to say?  That was weird to say.”

“I’m sorry,” she shot a glance to Sekai, her face now serious if not grave in contrast to her playful mood only moments prior.  “I haven’t been entirely forthcoming.  I’m not a Shinigami, but you are free to think of me as one.  Maybe it would be better for you to consider me...part Shinigami?  I belong to one, in much the same way your hands belong to you.”

It was her sincere hope that her lack of...forthcoming honestly had not offended her host.  Shrine-maidens no doubt had ancient and secret kung-fu techniques that they could unleash.  Karaudo did not want to test her.

Word count // 623 = 12 || 86