(Fluffy takes a shower and Kagome sees a side of Sesshoumaru that she's never seen before!
As always, Inuyasha and co belong to Takahashi Rumiko ::bows:: et al.)
Five Days In Tokyo - or - Sesshoumaru's Unlikely Visit - Five
The house was filled with interesting scents that negated the fact that humans live there, Sesshoumaru mused as Kagome showed him through the house. It was not near as large as his castle, but it was much larger than the peasants homes he had seen. Still, there was all this clutter, unfamilar, high off the ground furniture that did not serve much of a purpose except perhaps make the one sitting in it uncomfortable. There were some more traditional pieces but they were of foriegn materials unknown to Sesshoumaru.
And walls, so many walls! They did not slide back and were just there to separate the rooms from each other. This home had windows, but they were small and did not let as much light in as a more traditional wealthy home (Sesshoumaru was sure that the wench was wealthy from the look of everything). Doors, too were very odd to Sesshoumaru. You turned an odd little knob and opened the door instead of sliding it back.
The rooms were interesting in their smells although they were predictable. Her mother's room - neat, clean and presentable was unremarkable except for the most life like paintings he had ever seen before of two children - one he recognized as the wench and the other he recognized as a younger sibling - perhaps this Sota person of the barbarian music. It was more than a painting - it was like they took a part of that person in that space of time and captured it in the frame.
"Those are photos.." Kagome saw him looking intently at the framed picture that was on the wall of her mother's room as they passed by. "I can show you more if you want."
Sesshoumaru did not reply. Thankfully the wench did not comment further.
They went past another room which smelled of a child - a male to be precise. Now Sesshoumaru was sure that this was Sota-of-the-stereo room. That was confirmed a moment later by the wench herself. Hm, nothing really interesting there except for all the pictures upon the wall. These had no frames and they were of different odd creatures. Odds and ends were scattered here and there but nothing that Sesshoumaru was interested in too much.
Ah, old man smell..Sesshoumaru could definitely smell that now as they passed the room. He saw the room had a more traditional sleeping mat and pillows, but the rest of the room was a hodgepodge of books, scrolls and jars of everything under the sun. Sesshoumaru could smell familar herbs and scents under the old man smell. This old man - the grandfather that Kagome had mentioned, sounded like he was a sort of scholar, even though to Sesshoumaru that didn't mean much.
Still that would not mean he shouldn't investigate the room a little further. After all, it may have something he could use - perhaps..
"Here is the main bathroom. Actually I have one in my room too, but this is the guest bathroom." Kagome said.
Sesshoumaru looked into the odd little room. Bath - room? If this was a bath, it certainly was a pitiful one. What looked like a fancy trough for an animal surely could not be a decent bathing pool. And that odd seat, what was it's purpose?
He decided to ask the wench that and she suddenly looked a bit flustered.
"It where um - you go to the ba - no - um, where you use the - dammit.." She scowled. "It's where you uh - get rid of uh - bodily waste and - hey!!"
Sesshoumaru had unwound the toilet paper from it's roll and was examining it curiously.
"Odd parchment. It would be too hard to write anything upon it. Too thin."
"That's not to write with! It's to uh - um.." Kagome turned five different shades of red. SHE certainly wasn't going into the details!
Sesshoumaru regarded the toilet paper and then looked at the odd seat, lifting up the lid. He raised a brow. Was this to collect water in? But she had said something about bodily waste - which was her nice way of saying something else.
"What is this?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"It's a toilet." Kagome wished she could just crawl into a hole and hide.
"Toilet? What does it do?"
"It - uh..well you sit on it and you - uh - dispose of your - uh - waste then you flush it."
"Flush - it?" Sesshoumaru's brows knitted together.
"Like this.." Kagome pushed down the handle and the water flushed down the drain and then filled back up. Sesshoumaru watched with an air of fascination.
"Where does this - waste go?" Sesshoumaru placed the wadded up roll of toilet paper unceremoniously on the countertop.
"It goes um - to a waste water facility aaaand - " Kagome was trying to remember what all she learned in school about that.
But Sesshoumaru's attention had already turned to the bathtub and the shower attached to it.
"That's the bathtub."
"It looks like a horse trough."
"Well, it's not." Kagome said.
Sesshoumaru looked at the handles and surmised that they did the same thing as the water-bringing device in the kitchen. He looked up and saw the showerhead and wondered why there would be such an opening so far up if one were down below in the trough taking a bath.
"That's a shower.." Kagome said. "It's like - oh - standing under a waterfall and getting wet. You stand under it to get clean."
Sesshoumaru nodded and then took inventory of the other things in the room - bars of soap, odd little tubes of something on the water basin, and why did they have those odd little covers on top of the 'toilet'? They served no practical purpose to Sesshoumaru's thinking.
They got out of the bathroom and Kagome showed him her room. Sesshoumaru could smell her scent keenly here and he scowled at the pleasantness of it. Again, he saw one of those high sleeping mats with soft pillows on it along with some books and odd papers on it. A writing desk was in the corner, with another odd box with a window on top of it. A high chair was in front of the writing desk. There was a closet and a high chest with drawers on the other end and then there was an open door which led to another 'bath room'.
The scent of woman was strongest coming from the 'bath room' and Sesshoumaru chose to ignore it's sweet scent. The woman was human even though she was a witch and he, Sesshoumaru, would not fall for her trickery - not like that stupid hanyou half-breed.
"You know - you could take a shower..clean the dirt from your tail, Sesshoumaru.." Kagome said.
What? Was she infering that he was a mangy dog? Fah! How rude! How - well it was true. He HATED his tail to have dirt within it, in fact he just hated to be dirty. He didn't have a fear of dirt or blood, but Sesshoumaru just had higher standards of cleaniless.
"I can get you something to wear.." Kagome looked excited. "It was kinda my fault I tripped you up - I can get your kimono cleaned too if you like. I have some laundry to do anyway."
"No."
"Look, I can tell you don't like being dirty and a shower won't hurt you."
Sesshoumaru resisted the urge to reach out and trottle the bitch for infering that HE was afraid and instead thought about it. Perhaps - perhaps he should try this - 'shower' as she called it.
"You will prepare it for me, wench." Sesshoumaru crossed his arms imperiously as if he were doing her a favor by allowing her to do it.
"Oh brother." Kagome said. This was going to be a nightmare and the first night wasn't even over yet.
Kagome went to get a spare kimono and Sesshoumaru stood impasively in her room, bothered by her scent still. Humph. Miko witch. And why does she sleep in that tall bed for?
He stepped out of the witch's room and waited for her return..
****
They were in the guest bathroom, and Sesshoumaru watched Kagome explain the 'shower' to him. You turn this knob and that knob and then the water would come out. There is the soap and there's a washcloth and there's the towel. Be sure and step on the mat afterwards so you don't get water everywhere. Put on this kimono - it was actually my dad's, but it looks like it'll fit you. Knock on the door when you're decent and have a nice shower!
Then the maddening witch was gone, pulling the odd door shut behind her.
Sesshoumaru shrugged as he stripped out of his kimono. Briefly he regarded himself in the long mirror and scowled at the lights. They were too bright for his tastes but they did let out a steady even light. Amazing how the wench could flick a switch in the wall and make light come forth. More reason why he couldn't let her out of his sight.
Gingerly he stepped into the shower and turned the knobs as Kagome has shown him. However, he nearly yelped as the searing hot water hit his bare skin. Cursing under his breath, he twisted one knob and then another. Argh! COLD! Cursing and twisting the knobs again, he finally found a decent setting, took the odd soap and scrubbed himself clean. He found the bottle of 'shampoo' and 'conditioner' that the wench had left for him and put it in his hair.
It felt - good - very good indeed! If Sesshoumaru could have purred with delight he would have. He rised his long hair clean and then went to work on his tail. Within minutes he was clean, although he - and the bathroom floor were sopping wet.
He had not pulled back the shower curtain!
The youkai lord stepped out onto the fuzzy feeling mat, and vigorously shook himself. In the process his long wet tail hit the door with a thump - which was Kagome's signal that he was decently dressed.
She opened the door and saw a VERY naked Sesshoumaru, just getting ready to retrieve a towel off the wall rack. Kagome's mouth opened but no speech came out. She just stared at him and he stared back, unruffled that she had caught him naked.
"GOMEN!" Kagome slammed the door and rested on the other side of it, her face very, VERY red as the picture of Sesshoumaru refused to leave her mind. Inuyasha's older brother was MUCH taller and much - uh - um..
Kagome was NOT going to go back in there! Oh she was SO embarrassed!
****
Sesshoumaru had to admit, if it was one thing he thought humans did right, it was creating a device such as this 'blow dryer'. The warm air dried his long hair and tail much faster than air-drying, plus it felt good - although he wouldn't tell the wench that. She was very quiet and wouldn't look at him straight in the eye - no doubt embarrassed that she had caught him in his state of undress. He could smell her tension as well as something else hidden underneath that, but he did not bother to identify it. He allowed her to comb through his hair although he kept her away from his tail.
And his kimono! It was cleaned and dried in record time and she did not have to go to a river to clean the garments as he had seen village women do. No, he had watched as she had put his kimono in another box - what WAS it with all these marvelous boxes? - and then put in some sort of powder and pushed a button which started the thing she called a 'washing machine.' Later she put his kimono in another box she called a 'dryer' and it came out as dry as a bone as if it had never been wet at all.
****
Now Kagome had a bit of a problem when night fell..and that was trying to keep Sesshoumaru in the house while she slept. She feared that the youkai lord would take off into the city and she'd see him on the news slicing and dicing people!
Her solution was to stay up - all night. She had done it a few times before when she had studied for a hard test or wrote up a paper, so it shouldn't be too hard since she had an incentive. She brewed pots of coffee and tried to keep herself occupied all the while trying to keep Sesshoumaru occupied.
Right now it was about 2:30 in the morning and Kagome knew that Sesshoumaru was watching a movie on their DVD player in the living room. She had pulled out a movie about hideous aliens - one which she was sure he'd probably go for since there was a lot of bloodletting in that movie. The movie was actually Sota's, who despite the fact that he was scared of a lot of things in real life, loved those type of movies. From time to time Kagome would actually hear Sesshoumaru say something as if he were really wrapped up in the movie itself.
As long as she could stay up and Sesshoumaru was occupied, it'd be all right - she hoped. She knew one thing - yawn - she was going to check every inch of that well again. If there wasn't anything there, she would have to hope that Inuyasha could get the necklace back from Kikyo.
She didn't want to think about the chances of that!
Kagome yawned again as she tried to focus on her computer screen, which had an on-line application for a college that she was interested in attending next year. Kagome couldn't wait for college, since she had really applied herself in her studies and made it to the top of her class. Pretty good for someone who had been going back and forth between her time and the past.
Kagome rested her head on her hands as she closed her eyes. It would be just for a minute..
****
Sesshoumaru was disgusted. The youkai or whatever that thing was had been doing quite well in killing and devouring the humans on board that odd vessel that traveled the stars, but then it had let that stupid woman defeat it? Humph! Stupid youkai - must have been an inferior one to go about chasing humans that way. It had probably wanted to mate with that female - a downfall of many a weak youkai. He watched the little flat box spit out the silver disc and so he went to take a closer look at it. Sesshoumaru picked it up and saw somewhat familar writing on it, but some of it was completely foriegn too. He turned the silver disc over and saw an image of himself. Hm, round mirrors that showed stories - he was sure that that's what the thing he had seen was since no youkai or human had ever left the earth. He set the disc down on the thin black box it had played in and went towards the wench's room. He saw her slumped in front of that odd box that was on the writing desk. Sesshoumaru silently went over to her. Yes, the witch was asleep, her hands on a flat piece of something that had many perfect buttons on it.
Ignoring her for a moment, Sesshoumaru looked at the window in this box. There were words in this window and although he could not understand many of the words - again they were foriegn to him - some he could. He looked down at the sleeping Kagome and thought that this wench was indeed more than she had seemed, perhaps even more than just a mere witch. Wasn't she able to control the Shikon itself?
Humph, it seemed that this wench was very powerful and yet very stupid to be following that damned hanyou all about the land. Perhaps it was because the wench had a sentiment towards that dog-eared half-breed, which came from coupling with him. Bad taste on both sides, he thought, but she, at least had a prettiness of face and a most daunting spirit. That hanyou half-brother was simply - well, not refined in the least.
Sesshoumaru turned away, not liking the thought that he even remotely favored Inuyasha's wench. He supposed he would rest for now - not that he needed it - but simply because it would benifit him to be well rested and alert around the wench herself.
The youkai-lord headed for the futon in the living room.
And such was the first night.
As always, Inuyasha and co belong to Takahashi Rumiko ::bows:: et al.)
Five Days In Tokyo - or - Sesshoumaru's Unlikely Visit - Five
The house was filled with interesting scents that negated the fact that humans live there, Sesshoumaru mused as Kagome showed him through the house. It was not near as large as his castle, but it was much larger than the peasants homes he had seen. Still, there was all this clutter, unfamilar, high off the ground furniture that did not serve much of a purpose except perhaps make the one sitting in it uncomfortable. There were some more traditional pieces but they were of foriegn materials unknown to Sesshoumaru.
And walls, so many walls! They did not slide back and were just there to separate the rooms from each other. This home had windows, but they were small and did not let as much light in as a more traditional wealthy home (Sesshoumaru was sure that the wench was wealthy from the look of everything). Doors, too were very odd to Sesshoumaru. You turned an odd little knob and opened the door instead of sliding it back.
The rooms were interesting in their smells although they were predictable. Her mother's room - neat, clean and presentable was unremarkable except for the most life like paintings he had ever seen before of two children - one he recognized as the wench and the other he recognized as a younger sibling - perhaps this Sota person of the barbarian music. It was more than a painting - it was like they took a part of that person in that space of time and captured it in the frame.
"Those are photos.." Kagome saw him looking intently at the framed picture that was on the wall of her mother's room as they passed by. "I can show you more if you want."
Sesshoumaru did not reply. Thankfully the wench did not comment further.
They went past another room which smelled of a child - a male to be precise. Now Sesshoumaru was sure that this was Sota-of-the-stereo room. That was confirmed a moment later by the wench herself. Hm, nothing really interesting there except for all the pictures upon the wall. These had no frames and they were of different odd creatures. Odds and ends were scattered here and there but nothing that Sesshoumaru was interested in too much.
Ah, old man smell..Sesshoumaru could definitely smell that now as they passed the room. He saw the room had a more traditional sleeping mat and pillows, but the rest of the room was a hodgepodge of books, scrolls and jars of everything under the sun. Sesshoumaru could smell familar herbs and scents under the old man smell. This old man - the grandfather that Kagome had mentioned, sounded like he was a sort of scholar, even though to Sesshoumaru that didn't mean much.
Still that would not mean he shouldn't investigate the room a little further. After all, it may have something he could use - perhaps..
"Here is the main bathroom. Actually I have one in my room too, but this is the guest bathroom." Kagome said.
Sesshoumaru looked into the odd little room. Bath - room? If this was a bath, it certainly was a pitiful one. What looked like a fancy trough for an animal surely could not be a decent bathing pool. And that odd seat, what was it's purpose?
He decided to ask the wench that and she suddenly looked a bit flustered.
"It where um - you go to the ba - no - um, where you use the - dammit.." She scowled. "It's where you uh - get rid of uh - bodily waste and - hey!!"
Sesshoumaru had unwound the toilet paper from it's roll and was examining it curiously.
"Odd parchment. It would be too hard to write anything upon it. Too thin."
"That's not to write with! It's to uh - um.." Kagome turned five different shades of red. SHE certainly wasn't going into the details!
Sesshoumaru regarded the toilet paper and then looked at the odd seat, lifting up the lid. He raised a brow. Was this to collect water in? But she had said something about bodily waste - which was her nice way of saying something else.
"What is this?" Sesshoumaru asked.
"It's a toilet." Kagome wished she could just crawl into a hole and hide.
"Toilet? What does it do?"
"It - uh..well you sit on it and you - uh - dispose of your - uh - waste then you flush it."
"Flush - it?" Sesshoumaru's brows knitted together.
"Like this.." Kagome pushed down the handle and the water flushed down the drain and then filled back up. Sesshoumaru watched with an air of fascination.
"Where does this - waste go?" Sesshoumaru placed the wadded up roll of toilet paper unceremoniously on the countertop.
"It goes um - to a waste water facility aaaand - " Kagome was trying to remember what all she learned in school about that.
But Sesshoumaru's attention had already turned to the bathtub and the shower attached to it.
"That's the bathtub."
"It looks like a horse trough."
"Well, it's not." Kagome said.
Sesshoumaru looked at the handles and surmised that they did the same thing as the water-bringing device in the kitchen. He looked up and saw the showerhead and wondered why there would be such an opening so far up if one were down below in the trough taking a bath.
"That's a shower.." Kagome said. "It's like - oh - standing under a waterfall and getting wet. You stand under it to get clean."
Sesshoumaru nodded and then took inventory of the other things in the room - bars of soap, odd little tubes of something on the water basin, and why did they have those odd little covers on top of the 'toilet'? They served no practical purpose to Sesshoumaru's thinking.
They got out of the bathroom and Kagome showed him her room. Sesshoumaru could smell her scent keenly here and he scowled at the pleasantness of it. Again, he saw one of those high sleeping mats with soft pillows on it along with some books and odd papers on it. A writing desk was in the corner, with another odd box with a window on top of it. A high chair was in front of the writing desk. There was a closet and a high chest with drawers on the other end and then there was an open door which led to another 'bath room'.
The scent of woman was strongest coming from the 'bath room' and Sesshoumaru chose to ignore it's sweet scent. The woman was human even though she was a witch and he, Sesshoumaru, would not fall for her trickery - not like that stupid hanyou half-breed.
"You know - you could take a shower..clean the dirt from your tail, Sesshoumaru.." Kagome said.
What? Was she infering that he was a mangy dog? Fah! How rude! How - well it was true. He HATED his tail to have dirt within it, in fact he just hated to be dirty. He didn't have a fear of dirt or blood, but Sesshoumaru just had higher standards of cleaniless.
"I can get you something to wear.." Kagome looked excited. "It was kinda my fault I tripped you up - I can get your kimono cleaned too if you like. I have some laundry to do anyway."
"No."
"Look, I can tell you don't like being dirty and a shower won't hurt you."
Sesshoumaru resisted the urge to reach out and trottle the bitch for infering that HE was afraid and instead thought about it. Perhaps - perhaps he should try this - 'shower' as she called it.
"You will prepare it for me, wench." Sesshoumaru crossed his arms imperiously as if he were doing her a favor by allowing her to do it.
"Oh brother." Kagome said. This was going to be a nightmare and the first night wasn't even over yet.
Kagome went to get a spare kimono and Sesshoumaru stood impasively in her room, bothered by her scent still. Humph. Miko witch. And why does she sleep in that tall bed for?
He stepped out of the witch's room and waited for her return..
****
They were in the guest bathroom, and Sesshoumaru watched Kagome explain the 'shower' to him. You turn this knob and that knob and then the water would come out. There is the soap and there's a washcloth and there's the towel. Be sure and step on the mat afterwards so you don't get water everywhere. Put on this kimono - it was actually my dad's, but it looks like it'll fit you. Knock on the door when you're decent and have a nice shower!
Then the maddening witch was gone, pulling the odd door shut behind her.
Sesshoumaru shrugged as he stripped out of his kimono. Briefly he regarded himself in the long mirror and scowled at the lights. They were too bright for his tastes but they did let out a steady even light. Amazing how the wench could flick a switch in the wall and make light come forth. More reason why he couldn't let her out of his sight.
Gingerly he stepped into the shower and turned the knobs as Kagome has shown him. However, he nearly yelped as the searing hot water hit his bare skin. Cursing under his breath, he twisted one knob and then another. Argh! COLD! Cursing and twisting the knobs again, he finally found a decent setting, took the odd soap and scrubbed himself clean. He found the bottle of 'shampoo' and 'conditioner' that the wench had left for him and put it in his hair.
It felt - good - very good indeed! If Sesshoumaru could have purred with delight he would have. He rised his long hair clean and then went to work on his tail. Within minutes he was clean, although he - and the bathroom floor were sopping wet.
He had not pulled back the shower curtain!
The youkai lord stepped out onto the fuzzy feeling mat, and vigorously shook himself. In the process his long wet tail hit the door with a thump - which was Kagome's signal that he was decently dressed.
She opened the door and saw a VERY naked Sesshoumaru, just getting ready to retrieve a towel off the wall rack. Kagome's mouth opened but no speech came out. She just stared at him and he stared back, unruffled that she had caught him naked.
"GOMEN!" Kagome slammed the door and rested on the other side of it, her face very, VERY red as the picture of Sesshoumaru refused to leave her mind. Inuyasha's older brother was MUCH taller and much - uh - um..
Kagome was NOT going to go back in there! Oh she was SO embarrassed!
****
Sesshoumaru had to admit, if it was one thing he thought humans did right, it was creating a device such as this 'blow dryer'. The warm air dried his long hair and tail much faster than air-drying, plus it felt good - although he wouldn't tell the wench that. She was very quiet and wouldn't look at him straight in the eye - no doubt embarrassed that she had caught him in his state of undress. He could smell her tension as well as something else hidden underneath that, but he did not bother to identify it. He allowed her to comb through his hair although he kept her away from his tail.
And his kimono! It was cleaned and dried in record time and she did not have to go to a river to clean the garments as he had seen village women do. No, he had watched as she had put his kimono in another box - what WAS it with all these marvelous boxes? - and then put in some sort of powder and pushed a button which started the thing she called a 'washing machine.' Later she put his kimono in another box she called a 'dryer' and it came out as dry as a bone as if it had never been wet at all.
****
Now Kagome had a bit of a problem when night fell..and that was trying to keep Sesshoumaru in the house while she slept. She feared that the youkai lord would take off into the city and she'd see him on the news slicing and dicing people!
Her solution was to stay up - all night. She had done it a few times before when she had studied for a hard test or wrote up a paper, so it shouldn't be too hard since she had an incentive. She brewed pots of coffee and tried to keep herself occupied all the while trying to keep Sesshoumaru occupied.
Right now it was about 2:30 in the morning and Kagome knew that Sesshoumaru was watching a movie on their DVD player in the living room. She had pulled out a movie about hideous aliens - one which she was sure he'd probably go for since there was a lot of bloodletting in that movie. The movie was actually Sota's, who despite the fact that he was scared of a lot of things in real life, loved those type of movies. From time to time Kagome would actually hear Sesshoumaru say something as if he were really wrapped up in the movie itself.
As long as she could stay up and Sesshoumaru was occupied, it'd be all right - she hoped. She knew one thing - yawn - she was going to check every inch of that well again. If there wasn't anything there, she would have to hope that Inuyasha could get the necklace back from Kikyo.
She didn't want to think about the chances of that!
Kagome yawned again as she tried to focus on her computer screen, which had an on-line application for a college that she was interested in attending next year. Kagome couldn't wait for college, since she had really applied herself in her studies and made it to the top of her class. Pretty good for someone who had been going back and forth between her time and the past.
Kagome rested her head on her hands as she closed her eyes. It would be just for a minute..
****
Sesshoumaru was disgusted. The youkai or whatever that thing was had been doing quite well in killing and devouring the humans on board that odd vessel that traveled the stars, but then it had let that stupid woman defeat it? Humph! Stupid youkai - must have been an inferior one to go about chasing humans that way. It had probably wanted to mate with that female - a downfall of many a weak youkai. He watched the little flat box spit out the silver disc and so he went to take a closer look at it. Sesshoumaru picked it up and saw somewhat familar writing on it, but some of it was completely foriegn too. He turned the silver disc over and saw an image of himself. Hm, round mirrors that showed stories - he was sure that that's what the thing he had seen was since no youkai or human had ever left the earth. He set the disc down on the thin black box it had played in and went towards the wench's room. He saw her slumped in front of that odd box that was on the writing desk. Sesshoumaru silently went over to her. Yes, the witch was asleep, her hands on a flat piece of something that had many perfect buttons on it.
Ignoring her for a moment, Sesshoumaru looked at the window in this box. There were words in this window and although he could not understand many of the words - again they were foriegn to him - some he could. He looked down at the sleeping Kagome and thought that this wench was indeed more than she had seemed, perhaps even more than just a mere witch. Wasn't she able to control the Shikon itself?
Humph, it seemed that this wench was very powerful and yet very stupid to be following that damned hanyou all about the land. Perhaps it was because the wench had a sentiment towards that dog-eared half-breed, which came from coupling with him. Bad taste on both sides, he thought, but she, at least had a prettiness of face and a most daunting spirit. That hanyou half-brother was simply - well, not refined in the least.
Sesshoumaru turned away, not liking the thought that he even remotely favored Inuyasha's wench. He supposed he would rest for now - not that he needed it - but simply because it would benifit him to be well rested and alert around the wench herself.
The youkai-lord headed for the futon in the living room.
And such was the first night.