Part 67: Fleas

The tip of Haida's nose was tickling and he wiggled it, caught in the halfway world of dreams and the real world. The sensation continued, and as he sank completely back into sleep, he dreamed Retsuko was tickling his nose with a feather and laughing along with him. He felt himself reaching up and brushing at it as she brought the feather back down, landing it directly into his left nostril, causing him to snort and flail at it as it tickled him inside his nose.

He became aware of tiny, crunchy pokes through his fur and into his skin, and an extremely hard surface beneath him, alerting him enough to become fully awake and sit up.

He was stiff and his eyes were full of sleep dust and the tickling was still in his nose. Out of desperation starting to border on slight panic, he began brushing, then slapping at his nose, sensing a crawling sensation.

The sensation reached the back of his throat and he began to cough, then finally sneezed, the blessing of his body's reaction expelling a rather large and displeased-looking insect. It landed on his leg, and as he studied it for a second out of sheer surprise, it buzzed angrily at him and flew away to find a better hiding place.

Haida looked around and realized he was still out in the field, with Retsuko still next to him, still sleeping. He rubbed his ear, a habit he'd gotten into since his Kirk-induced injury. He had had the best dream, that he had actually proposed to Retsuko, and that she had said yes.

He glanced over, confused, at his girlfriend (fiancee?) next to him. She was sleeping well, her left hand tucked under her head and her right stretched out in his direction. The blue flowers contrasted with her gold-red fur, bringing emphasis to it and surrounding her with almost a glow in the sunlight.

"Hey, Tsuko."

He gave her shoulder a gentle shake.

"Tsuko."

Haida's mate opened her eyes and looked at him, slightly grouchy at being woken up but also concerned. She sat up, also stiff, taking Haida's hand and pulling herself upright and rubbing her eyes.

"Haida? Is everything ok?"

Haida looked around again and began inspecting the fur on his arm.

"Everything's fine, sweetheart, we just seem to have fallen asleep out here somehow."

Haida stole a quick look at her left hand, checking for the ring; he still wasn't sure if it had been a dream or not.

"Did...did we do anything out here, before we went to sleep?"

Retsuko held up her hand, the ring in full view, causing Haida to breathe a sigh of relief. It hadn't been a dream after all; the proposal was done, she had obviously said yes, and he didn't have to be afraid of doing it anymore.

"Only this," she said, grinning proudly, " and you deserved a nap after all that. I just decided to join you."

Haida began inspecting his other arm, running his fingers through his fur, parting it in places and examining his skin. Retsuko caught this.

"Haida, is something wrong with your fur?"

Haida glanced up distractedly.

"We've been out here for a while, and I was checking for things..."

His mate just looked at him.

"What...things?"

Haida didn't want to say, but he managed to get the word out.

"Hrrrrmmm...uhhhh...fleas..." He mumbled.

Retsuko jumped up and began scratching herself all over.

"FLEAS? OH MY GODS, THERE'S FLEAS OUT HERE?!?"

Retsuko took off across the field, the one singular thought on her mind being to get out of the flowers before the little crawling horrors could get into her thick fur. She remembered how as a cub her classmates would sometimes be sent home because it was suspected that they too, had fleas and might infest the other cubs. Once fleas got into an area, they spread like wildfire and were next to impossible to get rid of.

She also remembered once how after she had come home and told her mother about one of her flea-ridden classmates, the older panda had screamed and immediately put Retsuko in a hot tub and scrubbed her down with some really stinky shampoo that made her fur fall out in patches. It was humiliating to have to go back to school the next day reeking of flea shampoo and with patchy fur.

As she reached the path leading away from the field to the house, she heard Haida's rapid footsteps coming up behind her and felt his hand on her shoulder, stopping her. She stopped, breathing hard, the panic in her stomach still there but quelled by Haida's presence. She heard him speak calmly, trying to check her and calm her down.

"Calm down, Tsuko. I've had fleas before as a cub and I know what it feels like. I'll describe it and if you feel it then it's a warning sign."

She turned to look up at him, and the look on his face made her feel guilty for freaking out and making him worry.

"What does it feel like, Haida?"

The pair began walking up the path to the house, Retsuko still itching all over due to the power of suggestion.

Haida grinned a little bit and shook his head.

"My sweet, innocent city panda..."

"This is isn't something to joke about, Haida! It's fleas, this is serious! What does it feel like?!"

Haida couldn't help but smile a tiny bit again at his mate's reaction. She could be very intimidating when angry, but at the same time it was so damned cute.

"It feels like a million little crawling things all over you," he said, "and they bite and live on your blood. It's the bites that make you itch so badly. The crawlie feelings are just annoying, and fleas have been known to spread diseases. Remember how they taught us in school about the Great Plague back in the ancient times? That was caused by fleas."

Retsuko nodded, Haida's presence calming her down more.

"So what do we do, Haida? I don't want to risk spreading any to the family..."

Haida took her hand as they walked.

"I guess when we get to the house, we go straight upstairs to the bathroom and inspect each other for fleas and take baths to be on the safe side. We have some special shampoo for it we keep in there just in case."

Retsuko looked up at him quickly, remembering that horrible cubhood flea bath and wrinkling her nose at her memory of the smell.

"It's not that stinky stuff, is it?"

Haida smiled down at her to calm her down more.

"No, I know the stuff you're talking about, and not only no, but hell no. Mama tried that stuff one time and she banned it from the house because it smelled so bad and was so strong. We use a different brand that smells like vanilla and it's for sensitive fur so it doesn't burn anyone."

Haida looked up again as they walked and he brought his ear up and cocked it in Retsuko's direction as they talked, pleased at being able to move it properly again.

"How are you feeling? Any crawlies?"

Retsuko scratched at her neck, the power of suggestion taking over once more.

"No crawlies right now, no bites, but we can't risk it, dear."

"I know..."

Maya met the pair on the path as they had almost made it to the house. Haida held a hand out, palm out, and shouted at her as she walked up.

"Don't come near us, Maya, we might have fleas!"

Haida's sister's eyes got big and she took several steps backward away from them. She then stopped and pulled her phone from her pocket and motioned at it. Understanding her, Haida pulled his own phone out, answering as it rang. Maya spoke into her phone, still looking at the pair, not moving from her place a good way up the path from them. She looked a mixture of angry and incredulous, pointing at the couple as she spoke.

"How in the name of the gods did you guys get fleas??"

Haida looked back at his sister as he talked to her.

"...we fell asleep out in the flower field."

Maya laid her head back, looking up at the sky in aggravation as she spoke into her phone.

"That was a stupid move, Haida. How many times have we told you DON'T SLEEP OUTSIDE?"

"More times than the furs on my head."

"THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO IT? YOU MIGHT HAVE RETSUKO INFESTED TOO! YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER THAN TO LET HER SLEEP OUT THERE WITH Y-"

Maya suddenly got a funny look on her face and the skin around her nose and in her ears turned bright red, causing Haida to start snickering.

"Oh...oh gods...Haida, you guys were..."

Haida doubled over and started laughing at his sister's reaction to what was in her mind her baby brother's personal territory and the fact that her mind had trodden there.

Maya composed herself and continued speaking as normal. She held her free hand up at them, palm out, as if to tell the pair to stay put.

"Ahem, I'll go back to the house and let everyone know what happened-with the fleas, I mean, and you guys go straight upstairs and get cleaned up."

Haida's sister turned on her heel and took off for the house, her skirt flying behind her.

Haida heard his fiancee speak.

"That's the fastest I've ever seen her move."

"She can book it if she wants to. She's usually too calm to get in a hurry."

As the couple entered the house, Haida called out to his family, letting them know they were there. Retsuko listened, finding it odd how quiet it was in the house. There was not a soul to be seen, not voice to be heard. Usually May's singing could be heard from somewhere in the house, or at least the sound of a washer as Jean did the laundry.

As the couple stood looking around, they both gave a small jump as Haida's phone suddenly rang. It was his mother.

"You two go straight upstairs right now and go in the bathroom and get clean. I've put a garbage bag for your clothes, a couple of towels and a couple of washcloths in there. I've also put your bags in there so you can get clean clothes out."

Haida looked puzzled as he stared up the stairs, still holding the phone to his ear.

"Where are you guys?"

He heard the sound of his parent's bedroom door click open a hair.

"We're all in our rooms til you two get clean. We don't want fleas either. Get to the bathroom, do not stop, do not sit on anything, do not go to your room. Go now."

"Yes, Mama..."

Haida hung up his phone and gave Retsuko a gentle nudge up the stairs, following closely behind her.

The bathroom was set up just like May had said. A garbage bag was laid out on the sink, 4 towels laid out next to that, along with Haida's travel bag and Retsuko's backpack next to the door. As Haida closed the door behind the pair, Retsuko immediately stripped off and stuffed her clothes into the garbage bag, then reached for the bathtub faucet and drain plug.

"Wait! Wait! Wait..."

Haida leaned over next to her and removed the shower head, popping it apart and looking inside. He smiled a little and showed his mate the inky plastic baggie that was squashed empty and wet from a previous shower.

Retsuko smirked a little.

"Oooh I bet Levon's pissed."

Haida spoke as he dropped the baggie into the trash can under the sink and rinsed the shower head out.

"That's why Jonathan warned us not to use the shower for a while..."

Haida began running the water in the tub as he too stripped off, neither of the pair sheepish with each other in any way. Among the many things he worried about, Haida had been worried for a long time that maybe the spark between them had begun to die, but at that moment, when he saw his now-fiancee standing and waiting alongside him to get in the tub and wash up with him, he realized that the energy of their relationship had moved from a spark to a gentle hum, and he had little to worry about.

When the tub was full, Haida picked Retsuko up around the waist and set her in. As she sat down he himself climbed in, causing Retsuko to give a little gasp as the water level rose with her fiancee's larger size. The water in the bath was now reaching her chin, whereas it only reached Haida's chest.

She found herself gasping and beginning to panic a little bit, splashing and trying to stand or at least raise her head. Haida caught this and pulled her into his lap, settling her on his legs so the water only reached her collarbones.

Even despite the fact that they were so comfortable with each other, Haida found himself blushing, and rubbed Retsuko's back and shoulders as she leaned against him.

"Let's just stay like this for a while."

His fiancee nodded, enjoying the sensation of the warm water and the security she felt. If not for the potential of fleas, she might have found this situation they were in quite romantic. It still was, despite the circumstances.

She spoke quietly.

"When do we wash up?"

Haida continued rubbing her.

"The fleas will usually head up to avoid the water. So we'll wait a little while longer to see if they come up to our faces and ears."

They soaked like that for a little while longer, Retsuko rubbing herself down beneath the water to drive any potential parasites up to her head, where Haida could see.

"Okay, turn around and let me see your face," he said.

As she turned, Haida cupped her chin in one hand and parted her fur with the other, looking in her ears and on her face.

He smiled, relieved.

"Nothing."

Retsuko smiled as well.

"I'll check you now."

Her fiancee grinned.

"You know what that means, don't you?"

"Uh oh?"

He gave her a little kiss.

"Uh oh is right. You have no idea what you do to me when you touch me like that."

Retsuko gave him a playful little smack on the shoulder and asked for the shampoo, telling him to turn around as she stood up.

"Uh oh," she said, "is going to have a wait a little while longer," as she washed his back, "because we're looking for fleas and it's your parent's house and everyone's awake."

By the time she was finished rinsing him off, Haida was hunched over and clinging to the rim of the bathtub, panting hard and shaking. Retsuko had teasingly paid him no mind and washed herself and gotten out.

As his fiancee dried herself off, Haida rested his arms and head on the side of the bath and simply watched her. The way she moved fascinated him; she was quiet, still water to him. He knew beneath that quiet water lay a volcano ready to explode, and he felt honored to be the one that was allowed to help tame it and keep it in check.

Retsuko stopped toweling her ears off and looked over at him as he watched her.

"It's not anything you haven't seen before, you know."

Haida grinned gently.

"I've seen sunsets before and I can still call them beautiful."

Retsuko blushed a little bit at that and got dressed quickly, embarrassed at the attention. Putting on a sundress, garments and some sandals, she grabbed the one of other towels and held it open to him.

"Ready?"

Haida settled back into the tub.

"No thanks sweetheart, I think...I think I'll just stay here for a little while longer."

Retsuko just looked at him.

"Is everything ok?"

"Yes, I just...I just need some time."

His mate nodded, and then giggled.

"Sorry."

"Yeah, you're cruel, just leaving me here in this state..." Haida made a pouty face at Retsuko and tried to give her puppy eyes.

Retsuko laid Haida's towel across the bathtub's faucet so he could get to it when he was ready to come out, then leaned over and gave him a little kiss.

"I'll be downstairs or on the porch if you need me dear..."

"But I need you now," Haida said as the panda walked out the door. She gave her tail a small, coy flick at him before she closed it behind her.

Haida shook his head at her and let himself sink into the water until it covered every part of him but his eyes and nose. He stayed there, crocodile-like, thinking again.

So many things were running around his mind again. The proposal was done, yes, but what about the future? Would he be able to help care for her as a husband? What would the wedding be like? How should he help plan it? SHOULD he help plan it? Big or small? He hadn't even met Retsuko's family yet; what would they think of her marrying outside her species, and or from a lower class? He wasn't exactly rich. Would they ostracize her for that?

He blew a small bubble in the bathwater. He only wanted the best for his mate, and he honestly wasn't sure how to go about it.