Hair of the Dog

"Shion!" Inukashi was descending the slope away from her decrepit hotel, toward the bank of the stream, near which Shion was squatting by a large wooden pail of water, washing her second cousin. Noting that he was at least hard at work, she chose to overlook the daze he appeared to be in. "I want you to use this today."

"Alright, thanks." Having safely returned from his current daydream, Shion turned over the tall, fancy yellow plastic bottle Inukashi had just handed over to him. "Pretty Puppy," he read from its purple label. "Wow, we're going to be using real pet shampoo on all the dogs from now on?"

"No way! Can't afford to use up my stash of this stuff, washing every dog, every month," she replied harshly. "That'd be ridiculous." Shion could just hear the unspoken 'ya airhead' on the end of that. But then both her rough voice and facial expression softened. "I want to try using this instead of plain soap as a treat every three or four months. If it leaves their fur a little softer and lighter, it'll be a nice change for them. It's a kind of thank-you for all the work that they do."

"I'm sure they'll really like that." He turned to ask the large, proud attack dog; "Right?" The dog turned up his nose a little and sniffed at the air. "Looks like he's up to it… I think."

"Great. But don't use up too much all in one go, alright? Save as much as you can for your next customer in line."

"Got it!" Shion nodded, and enthusiastic to begin their new experiment, he began to rinse and re-lather the dog before him with such zeal, Inukashi had to laugh.

"Only a natural like you would get so excited about something like this," she howled.

Shion ignored her hearty belly laughs, smiling quietly to himself as he worked.

Inukashi soon calmed down and smiled a bit herself. "I'll check back on him in a few hours, after he's had a chance to dry off. You can get more shampoo from the supply shed if ya need it. See ya later."

— A few hours later —

Inukashi had come by once already and seemed satisfied enough dogs could be washed per bottle to make her plan economically feasible. Shion was now kneeling down to finish up on a last litter of puppies before taking a break.

The little brats took turns between climbing up and down their mother's freshly washed and dripping back and then tracking water all over Shion. He had the distinct feeling that their mother was laughing at him too, but as they were so cute, he couldn't bring himself to scold them. Absently brushing away excess droplets of water with his hands now and then, he let the adorable little terrors have their way while trailing off on a tangent in his mind about how similar the colour of their fur was to that of Cravat and how are he and the other mice doing at this particular moment and would Nezumi be in the mood to pick him up today on his way home so they could walk together…

"Hey Shion, I thought you were supposed to be the one giving the dogs a bath?" Inukashi mocked her clueless employee with laughing eyes. "But here, I brought you a hand towel."

"Thanks." He quickly finished up on the last of the puppies and was grateful to be able to dry his hands and his face, which had also been splashed by the frolicking puppies. As he attempted to use the towel to soak up as much water as possible from his clothing, Inukashi called her second cousin back over.

"Well aren't you all smug, all of a sudden, all clean and shiny." Inukashi grinned at her large canine relative. Shion noticed he seemed to be preening like a show dog. "Let's see how your fur feels… hey, that's pretty nice. Check it out, Shion. He's too blissed-out to care if we crowd him a bit."

Shion reached toward the large dog's back to swipe his fingers through its fur. He was surprised to discover how effortlessly his fingers sunk into and flew through the airy fur there. It was silky soft and incredibly light. Could this really be the same dog he'd washed earlier, with the thick and heavy, rough and matted fur? Shion suspected this must be a very expensive, high end pet grooming product. But good shampoos or conditioners aren't exactly easy to find out here, even for people. It must have come from inside No. 6 like the luxury items at Rikiga's. Airhead or not, he knew better than to ask. Instead, he spoke without thinking: "Wow, that's really something. I wish my hair could be this soft."

"If ya really want, you could wash your own hair with the stuff," Inukashi teased.

Shion perked up. "Really?"

Inukashi burst out laughing, barely managing to get out the words: "No, I was just kidding!" She wondered if she would ever get tired of this oblivious natural and his daily surprises. But noticing how his excited and expectant expression turned to being an ashamed and crestfallen one, she thought it wouldn't hurt to agree to one of his silly whims just once. "Wellll… what the hell. If you're really that jealous, we could try it out once. Follow me." She gestured for him to follow her back to the hotel.

— That evening —

Unaccompanied by Nezumi, Shion arrived home and got into their chilly shower to rid himself of the odor of wet dog. He didn't bother to wash his hair again, however, as he was rather enjoying its surprisingly soft new texture. Dinner was finished just in time for Nezumi's arrival home.

Every now and then Shion couldn't help but run his fingers through his own light, downy, and extra-shiny locks. Inukashi caught him doing this earlier and had a ball ridiculing him for it. As they sat side by side eating dinner, Nezumi couldn't help but take notice, himself that his room mate had picked up this new habit. Soon, Shion took a last spoonful of soup, then sat back in contentment, twirling his hair in his fingers.

"You're certainly enamoured with your hair today, aren't you?" Nezumi noted, bemused. But Nezumi soon found he was reaching over, despite himself.

"Yeah, usually it's you who's always touching my hair," Shion replied without thinking again.

"What? I don't do that!" Nezumi objected. But, there he was, red handed. He added more quietly, sulking: "Not all that often." There was no use stopping now. He let his fingers trail through the messy waves along the sides of Shion's face. Was his hair always as soft as this?

"Well maybe not that often, but you do do it… a lot," Shion answered diplomatically. And I enjoy it… alot, he would have liked to add, but that would be pushing it. "Can I feel your hair, then?"

"No. Do you want me to stop touching yours?"

"No." After a slight pause, Nezumi chuckled to himself, and Shion began to flush slightly at his unexpected forced confession. As if trying to cover up that change of tint, Nezumi brought his hand to the poor boy's somewhat profiled cheek. Even through his mild embarrassment, Shion was starting to feel rather intoxicated with all of this contact. He'd had a growing urge to let himself sink onto Nezumi's shoulder for a while now, and he soon gave way to that impulse, even letting out a contented sigh.

Dreading the conversation that would ensue from him putting an end to this increasingly intimate behaviour that it seemed he himself had started, and beginning to come to terms with the fact he was kind of enjoying this himself, Nezumi said nothing. Instead, he again ran his fingers backward through Shion's hair. As he very slowly glided them through, he watched how the smooth, near-transparent white strands caught the light; some of them reflecting it like a mirror, and others seeming to glow from within. More beautiful than ever…

Shion felt almost as if he could die just like this. This feeling of being drawn to Nezumi like this; of admiring him, and craving his touch— it had to be love, didn't it? But Nezumi had told Shion before that he wasn't really in love; that he was just grateful for having his life saved and didn't understand the meaning of his own words. If his words weren't any good, then what could he do to express these feelings more clearly?

Nezumi was surprised when Shion was the one to break their few minutes' contact. But soon, that natural was grabbing his shoulders from the front. Shion's determined red eyes looked into his, and suddenly that odd boy's hands were wandering over his shoulders and around his neck in an embrace. Shion was kissing him? It was a rather amateurish and hesitant kiss, but Nezumi still liked it. Not that he would say so. "What the hell was that, Shion?" He said with disgust. But before his awkwardly cute companion could mumble an apology and crawl off somewhere to die, he added: "No one wants a lover whose kisses are that weak. Come sit over here and let me show you a thing or two."

An apprehensive Shion began to slowly lower himself back down onto the sofa, but Nezumi grabbed him by the arms, roughly pulling the bewildered boy onto his own lap but then carefully positioning his head. Silvery grey eyes drew closer to Shion again, and Nezumi led him into a skilled and confident kiss. It was forceful, but also seemed to carry a sense of… tenderness, maybe? Nezumi's hands were both in Shion's hair now too, and the white-haired boy felt eruptions of a pleasurable, feverish heat spreading all over his body. Shion's observations ended there, as he felt himself getting rather light-headed. He nearly fell over, panting, as Nezumi released him. Yes, it's love. It's definitely love, Nezumi. I love you! He was dying to shout out the words, but now he knew better. "Ah, so you mean… like that…" He took one of the grey-eyed boy's pale hands in his own, brought that palm to his cheek for a few moments, and then kissed it softly before gently setting it free it again. "How about this then?" And Shion brought their lips together again for a longer and far more expressive kiss than his first attempt.

"That's it. I think you just might be catching on…"

— The next day —

If there were walls rather than ruins around him, Shion would have been bouncing off of them today. Inukashi had been busy all morning, so he busied himself straightaway with washing the remaining dogs. Soon he was in his head as usual, considering topics like how odd it was that you can feel like you want to die from embarrassment but you can also want to die from happiness. How can such a positive and such a negative emotion both lead to the same desired result? Do they even have anything in common? Maybe it's really only strange that a person could feel ready to die, whether out of contentment or not… but I guess I had that experience once, myself when the parasite bee…

"These guys said you were looking for me… and also that you're a little 'funny' today." Inukashi was casually pointing her thumb at some of the dogs that were hanging around just outside the entrance to the hotel. "You okay?"

He looked up at her with a huge grin on his face. "I'm feeling really great today actually,"

"Geez, you almost look drunk to me."

"By the way I wanted to see you because, umm… You've decided to keep buying that shampoo right?"

"Yeah…"

"Can I ask a favour?"

- End -