She started chewing her upper lip nervously and her breathing became short and choppy, he watched her with a small look of concern, but she just shook her head.
“Hey no need to be stressed over it. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s all right too. I don’t want to leave you hanging, but if you’re not ready then you aren’t. It’s all right. No matter what.” It really was. It wasn’t magic, just a decision, a choice to love instead of let himself hate, and to pick good things instead of bad. It didn’t mean he’d instantly be perfect at it, but who was perfect at anything? Maybe it was good enough to try and just keep trying? It was a start anyway.
When they all got in the hut the others grabbed clean clothes and headed towards the showers and tubs. Tor grinned and took an extra water heater for the shower tank. He hadn’t tried it yet, but didn’t want a cold shower either. Those were horrible.
Thinking about it Tor wondered how they were all going to manage this, maybe he and Rolph would stand outside and guard the door while the girls showered? Instead they all walked in at once and Rolph just locked the door behind them. Tor hadn’t even known the door had a lock. It was right there, built in; he’d just never thought to look.
He had to be let outside to put the heater on the tank that sat up on the roof, but it only took a few minutes. No ladder, but he could fly, so it that part wasn’t hard. No the hard part was getting it to stick to the outside of the water tank, The whole thing was incredibly smooth and hard, like glass, but he found that he could wedge the heater in just under the six inch thick pipe that led down into the bathing and shower area. Then he hit the second warmest sigil on the plate and flew back down. The door was locked again, so he knocked, expecting the others to keep him out for a while. After all, Rolph had probably had sex with both of them recently, Sara for sure and probably Ursala, why wouldn’t they, given their world? So it wouldn’t be embarrassing to them or anything, most likely, seeing each other naked and all that.
Instead Sara let him in instantly, almost like she’d been standing by, waiting on him.
Apparently in royal circles, baths and bathing were regularly taken as a group. Even mixed sex groups. Enough so that none of them even really considered it as a hardship, or even odd. Tor kept his head down and took his clothes off awkwardly, walking to the showers nervously and half waiting for the jokes about how scrawny he was, or even how inadequate in the manliness department, but it didn’t come. As he got the water on and stood under it, a warm wet curtain hit him evenly in the face. Tor was a little too shy to just stand facing away from the wall yet, hanging out and all that. Rolph didn’t care as much about that kind of thing from the sound of his voice as he chattered, and his chuckle when Ursala yelped when the water fell.
“It’s warm! Heated shower water? That’s… I’ve never heard of such a thing. We certainly never had that at home in Thorgood. Does the King’s palace even have this? It’s incredible. What would it cost to get something like this Tor? I mean for away from here?” She made a noise that sounded distinctly sexual, which got a giggle from Sara and an appreciative whistle from Rolph. Tor washed facing the wall, using some good lye soap on his hair. It stripped the oils away totally and all the dirt with it too. No matter how tempted he felt to look, the blindness to follow wouldn’t be worth it, he was sure. Lye soap wasn’t something to play with after all. It worked, better than almost anything, but get it in your eyes and the best you could do was flush with water, and hope the damage wasn’t too bad. The sounds didn’t stop for a while, so he actually got fully rinsed off before anyone else was done.
Being careful not to even look in anyone else’s direction, he walked carefully to the little room between the showers and the tubs to dry off. Rolph, still giggling called out to him before he could leave.
“Tor, set up two tubs for us I think, unless you all want to share?” The noise indicated that sharing was preferable, so the order got changed to just one tub. When he turned it on full bore to fill, the water pressure in the showers started to fade a bit, so Tor turned the water down some, letting the tub fill more slowly, taking about five minutes. It was just full when everyone, still dripping came out of the shower.
He’d lived with Rolph for two and a half, really three, years now. He’d seen him naked. It was impressive and a little complex making in and of itself. Tor wasn’t tiny, in, well that way himself, but Rolph was proportional, which meant he was a giant down there as well. Tor had always wondered if that was a big part of how come his friend was so comfortable with himself. Not just the size of his… manliness, but his overall size and everything coming together so well for him?
Sara was pretty, in a thin way, with more curve to her hip than he’d have though and a patch of blond hair between her legs that he’d heard legends about back home, on women in general, not about her in particular, but had never actually witnessed for himself. Ursala caught him looking and winked. So Tor looked at her for a moment too, smiling shyly. She was built a little stouter maybe, but everything on her was a size up from Sara, taller by a half foot, wider hips and a much bigger bust line. The biggest difference that he could tell was that her nipples were large and brown to Sara’s smaller pink ones.
Realizing that he was about to embarrass himself with a physical reaction in front of everyone he decided to climb into the tub quickly. It wasn’t so much that he wanted to hide, as that he desperately and completely had no clue what would be considered proper in this context to these people. Should he just ask? Or maybe ask if it was all right to ask?
It quickly became a moot point, because Sara ended up being seated directly across from him and after two minutes of small talk, she blurted out something that was about the last thing the whole world he would have expected. Well, the last thing would be that she was actually a man, since he knew first hand now that she couldn’t be.
What she said was definitely right up there thought.
“My family started the rumors in Galasia that you were a troll or a bad man that had to be begged to save them.” She looked ready to cry, and then the tears came. At least she was quieter about it than Trice or her mother had been. Not that he was knocking his other friends, he half scolded himself, but it was true. If there had to be crying, Sara’s way won hands down. She continued without too many sobs at least.
“It was because… because you spurned our offer of marriage. I told them it didn’t matter, but they were all angry at you for a long time, so some of them made up those stories, it wasn’t Heather or Kris, I promise. I… I’m sorry.”
Tor looked at her for a minute. God, of course. It was right there in the rules of how to be polite at that level of society and he’d gotten it totally wrong. He was… a Doretta.
“Sara… I’m so sorry! I really and truly thought that you were all just teasing me about that back then. I mean, why would you marry me? I’d just had it pointed out not, was it two hours before that, Rolph? That I was too low class for Ursala, so when your people, your mother and brother started in on it, I figured, you know, it was just having fun with the bumpkin time… you know? That’s why I ended the joke like I did. You remember? When I put my hand out flat on the table? Gah. You people don’t do that… If I’d have realized at the time I would have jumped at the chance, even if it meant pulling you out from under Rolph to do it.” He would have too. Trice was his friend, but so was Sara and in a lot of ways the blond girl had always been gentler with him, which mattered in the greater scheme of things.
Ursala and Rolph busted up laughing joined after a second by Sara, still crying. It made for an awkward hiccupping sound.
Tor blushed. This had been a joke, and he’d fallen for it? He felt a little stupid and started to close down, so that he wouldn’t burst into tears in front of everyone like a baby. Ursala at least explained why they were laughing which made him feel a little better once he got it.