It had been getting worse and worse lately.
At first, he just ignored it, because who would notice something like that?
But by the time it reached up to his ankles and covered his feet, he knew something was up.
He examined the water level thoughtfully while he tucked a towel around his hips. It drained slowly as he watched it. Showers don't work like this, gathered from his past experiences with them. The water's supposed to go down right away. And this hadn't happened before. He lifted a second towel and started drying his hair as he walked out into the room, still picking his brain for an explanation.
Rikku was lounging on the bed with his shirt on, her knees brought up to her chest so that she could paint her toenails. Her hair was tied tightly back and she had a green mask on her face. It smelled floral in the room from all the moisturizing creams Rikku had lathered onto every inch of her skin.
"Rik?" Gippal asked, rubbing the side of his head.
"Yeah?" She slowly ran the brush of the nail polish over her toe.
"Have you noticed that the water in the shower isn't going down lately?"
"Mm... nope."
"It doesn't bother you?"
"Nah. It keeps my feet warm." Gippal grinned. That was actually what he had been thinking. No matter how high he turned up the heater, the bathroom was always cold, no fighting it. Which meant that he always had to try to get the hot water all over himself to stay warm in the tile shower. But with the hot water filling up around his feet, it somehow warmed his entire body.
"Well, I still think we should fix it. It must be clogged or something…" Gippal said absentmindedly, going back into the shower to look at the water. It was almost all the way drained now.
"It is," Rikku said from the bed. Gippal glanced back at her.
"How do you know?"
"Well, it always was in my shower. It was bound to happen to yours eventually," Rikku said. Gippal gave her a quizzical look as he approached the bed. "It's my hair!" Rikku said, like it was obvious. Gippal stared for a second.
"Your hair is clogging the drain?" He sat down on the bed.
"Uh huh." They just stared at each other for a second.
"Ew. That is… really nasty."
"Hair as luscious as this has to fall out every once in awhile, Gippal," Rikku stated reproachfully, obviously offended that he thought anything about her could be nasty.
"Not in my shower drain!" Gippal whined.
"Look, you know what the problem is, and now, all you gotta do it pick it out," Rikku said, turning back to her nails. Gippal shuddered as the idea settled in.
"I'm not picking it out, you are," Gippal said.
"Don't be such a baby, Gip. It doesn't bother me that it's there, so I guess you're the one picking," Rikku said.
"I don't want to stick my fingers in there…" Gippal said nervously. Who knows what else could be down that drain?
"You don't have to. Just bend a hanger up."
"What?" It was almost like she had spoken in a different language.
"Go get a hanger." They just sat there for a second, and then Gippal realized that it was a command. He went to the closet and pulled out a white plastic hanger. He brought it back to her. "No, no, no, a wire hanger!" she said irritably. He sighed and pouted, then took it back to the closet to get a wire one. He brought it back to her. "Now, go get your pliers." He was wondering where this was going as he went into the drawer in the kitchen that was dedicated to just pliers. The ratio of drawers filled with tools to drawers filled with kitchen things was about 3 to 1. He brought the orange handled ones back to her. "Okay, now, cut off the bottom of it." He deftly cut the bottom wire off and presented it to her. "Last step. Curl the end up." He gripped it with the pliers and made a perfect hook. "There! Now you've got a picker!" she said. She set to work putting another coat of purple nail polish on her toes. Gippal stared at the hook. Then, he held it out to her with a bright smile.
"Have at it!" he said. Rikku turned to look at him.
"Are you serious?"
"Go get 'em."
"I'm in the middle of something here."
"I can wait."
"A very long time," she told him. He just laid back on the bed and watched her with a grin. "Oh my Guado, go entertain yourself! Or get dressed."
"This is a very fuzzy towel. I don't think I will."
"Gip, I'll just be distracted, and then I'll never finish my nails. I still have to do my hands, y'know," she said, her eyes roaming over his body that was still glistening from the shower.
"Well, your distraction will be fruitless. Don't think I'm kissing you with that green slime all over your face," he said. Rikku made a face at him, which cracked said dried slime, and she sighed and started painting her nails slower.
"Rik!" Gippal yelped when he saw her trudging through the courtyard with a plastic bag in her hand. "I just thought of something we should invent!" he said.
"Shoot," she said, rocking back on her heels.
"Okay, so, we should make this invention that like… grabs hair before it gets into the drain and wreaks havoc! Something that will let water go by, but not hair! Wouldn't that be awesome?" Gippal asked. Rikku cracked a smile and reached into the plastic bag she had.
"Something like this?" she asked. Gippal took the box. It was a rubber thing with suction cups that would hold it to the shower floor and stop hair from going into the drain.
"Oh…" he said ruefully. She patted his cheek.
"Stick to machina. You're still smarter than everyone else there," she said. He grinned and bent down to kiss her.
"I'll go put this in the shower…" he said, turning with the box in his hands.