Chapter 9: Meisuke and Cleaning

Meisuke sat on the roof in shimmering draconic form, sighing in contentment and relief as Tohru blasted the dragoness's back with a hose. Tohru for her part was glancing away as she did so, blushing brightly and biting her lower lip as though she were seeing something she wasn't supposed to. Every once in a while, though, she would sneak a glance at the dragon before looking away again as if she were worried about being caught.

Eventually, Meisuke noticed these half-glances Tohru was shooting her and, made be curious by the young woman's behavior, couldn't help but cock an eyebrow and ask, "What?"

Squeaking in surprise at the question, Tohru spluttered for a moment before finally spitting out, "I... um!" Shaking her head to calm her nerves, Tohru searched furiously for a conversation before finally settling on asking, "S-so... do you, erm, get cleaned like this often?"

Considering the question for a moment, Meisuke shuffled her wings as though shrugging before she replied, "Eh, not really. Where we're from, I kind of had to travel a lot, so there wasn't much I could do to get clean."

"Oh?" Tohru piped. "You traveled a lot over there?"

With a nod, Meisuke answered, "Yep. It was just what you did; if a dragon stayed in one place too long, humans would show up and start trying to slay you. It was a huge hassle."

Tohru considered this for a moment before muttering, "Huh... kind of like hunting a rare monster for special loot in an RPG..." Then, shaking her head, she asked, "So how'd you deal with it all?"

With another wing shuffling, Meisuke continued, "Well, sometimes I'd sleep in a cave, or hang out in some ruins for a bit, or... well, sometimes, I'd just pass out mid-flight. Almost crashed a couple times that way, but I haven't bought it yet, so... meh."

"Wait, so you just traveled however you wanted? And that's why you couldn't clean yourself up?" Tohru asked.

With a nod, Meisuke replied, "Yup. Was always kind of hard to find a place to do it, and the road wasn't exactly the most 'hygienic' of places." Shuddering a bit, she muttered, "My mouth was full of bugs..."

"Erm..." Tohru began, shifting uncomfortably, "Don't you mean, 'your mouth was always bugging you'?"

The blank stare she received from the dragoness let a long and awkward silence fill the air before Tohru forced an overly wide smile and said, "SO ANYWAY... how'd you get yourself clean?"

Meisuke thought for a moment before answering, "I would always try to find a spring or waterfall big enough to get the job done, but there weren't many big enough. Mostly, I would hope for a bit of rain to come through and, if there weren't any other options, we dragons would-" Meiuske's statement ground to a halt before she glanced away, saying, "Erm... we'd do... stuff."

"Huh?" Tohru said, cocking her head to the side in confusion. "I don't get it; what did you do?"

"Well, we... that is..." Meisuke avoided the young woman's gaze as she trailed off.

Frowning, Tohru said, "Whatever it is, you can tell me! I'm sure it's okay."

Taking a deep breath, Meisuke concluded, "...we lick each other clean. In fact, I've done it with Riko before." Doggedly staring in any direction than the one Tohru was in, Meisuke added, "Several times."

Blinking as she grew tomato red, the only response Tohru could offer was a quiet, "Oh."

...

"Alright," Meisuke (now in human form) declared as they entered the apartment, "It's time for me to clean this place up!"

Tohru glanced around, noticing that the room had only a bit of dust and hardly any clutter. "Wow," the young woman began, "there's hardly any mess at all! Are you some kind of clean freak, Meisuke?"

Considering the question, Meisuke shook her head before saying, "Eh, not really, but... I'm not really keeping this place clean for me." With a shrug, she added, "Any house or apartment I wasn't in charge of cleaning would probably be cluttered with beer and dead plants. I probably wouldn't do a whole lot of 'personal hygiene' stuff, either; It's not really a big deal for dragons, though, because we don't get sick too often. Humans aren't that lucky, I guess. Speaking of which..."

Meisuke suddenly threw an accusatory finger at Tohru, declaring, "Tohru! You live with no concern for cleanliness whatsoever!"

Tohru blinked, taken aback by the sudden shift in the conversation as well as by the accuracy of her assessment. "Ah, well, um... what do you mean by that?" was all Tohru could respond with.

Frowning, Meisuke began to rant, "Every time you eat, you just leave the instant meal cup or plate wherever you were sitting! Plus, when you take something off the bookshelf, you don't try to put it back in the right place at all; you just put it wherever you notice there's a space, even if it's just on a counter top or something! It's a messy way to live!"

Backing away sheepishly, Tohru began to say, "Ugh, well... it's not that big, right? I mean, when I first got out of the house, one of the big things I was really happy about was that my parents wouldn't complain about how I lived anymore."

Shifting from a frown to a full-blown scowl, Meisuke declared, "Of course it matters! Think about the example you're setting for Riko!" She paused to point at the younger dragoness who was sitting in the corner, sipping from a juice pouch as she watched the spectacle unfold before her.

Frantically trying to think of a way to escape Meisuke's wrath, Tohru suddenly struck upon an idea. Beginning to blush, she turned away shyly as she began, "But Meisuke..."

"Hm?" Tohru replied, cocking an eyebrow in suspicion.

"You're always keeping thins so clean for me that I'd feel bad if I wasn't a little bit messy..." Turning to gaze at Meisuke with her best maid smile, she concluded, "I don't want to put you out of work, after all..."

Smiling, Meisuke sighed out, "Awww, Tohru! How sweet!"

Grinning internally, Tohru congratulated herself on a job well done.

"...That's what you expected me to say, right?"

Tohru started at that. Meisuke's statement didn't bode well for her.

"Really though," Meisuke continued, "I'm THOUSANDS of years old and a master of information gathering. Do you think I couldn't see through this little deception...?" Meisuke began to chuckle and grin evilly before concluding, "I know what's going on here. And today, you're going to help me clean all of this now..."

Watching what came after Meisuke's statement with a passive expression, Riko muttered, "Meisuke can be pretty evil, huh...?"

...

Tohru sunk into the warm bath, releasing a moaning sigh that was somewhere between relief and disappointment. Blowing a few bubbles through the water, she mumbled to herself, "Aw... no fair, Meisuke, making me do all that deep cleaning... and on my day off, too..."

Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door before Meisuke called out, "Miss Tohru?"

Disappointment turning to curiosity, she called back, "Yeah, Meisuke?"

Tohru heard shuffling on the other side of the door for a moment before Meisuke continued, "Uh... well, I was feeling sorta bad about how I treated you today, and I wanted to thank you for helping bathe me, so..." A moment passed and Tohru thought Meisuke had given up. She was surprised, then, when the dragoness continued by asking, "...do you want me to wash your back?"

Tohru, surprised by the question and the rare tenderness Meisuke was displaying, began to blush a light red and nod shyly. After a moment, she realized that Meisuke couldn't see her and began to blush more deeply before replying, "A-ah, um, yes..."

...

Tohru doggedly focused on the floor tiles as she felt Meisuke silently scrub her back. It wasn't an uncomfortable or cold silence, merely a tense one; both shifted only statically and inoffensively, as though trying to determine how to approach the other.

As the moment dragged on, Tohru finally began to speak, saying "S-so, uh, Meisuke!" Waiting until she felt the dragoness momentarily pause in her ministrations before pressing on, Tohru asked, "It, um... it must be easier to keep yourself clean now that you're like a human, huh?"

Considering the question, Meisuke began to nod to herself as she answered, "Yeah, it can get kinda annoying to wash in my normal form at times, but... human forms are sort of... uncomfortable."

Frowning at the answer, Tohru couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean by that?"

Shrugging, Meisuke replied, "I guess it's like... Alright, imagine trying to fit your whole body into a little cardboard box. It gives a little, yeah, but it's still a tight fit, and it's not really designed to have you in it. It's just sort of... awkward." With a sigh, she added, "Though I guess I've never really been one to just settle down, so any sort of restriction can get to me pretty easily nowadays. Especially when you're in a world like yours with so many."

Tohru's frown deepened and she muttered, half to herself, "So I guess you don't like being in human form at all, huh..."

Suddenly, Meisuke dropped her chin onto Tohru's shoulder, making the young woman blush even brighter than before. Meisuke stared at her through the corner of her eye for what seemed to Tohru as a century before the dragoness finally muttered, "I don't feel that way at all. I love being in human form because it lets me be in this world... and as long as I'm in this world, I can be with you." Meisuke smiled, concluding, "So I guess you could say I really, really do like this world."

Tohru teared up slightly and opened her mouth to respond before being cut off by the bathroom door being pulled open.

"I have decided to join you!" Riko declared as stepped into the bathroom, adding, "Big Sis Meisuke is in charge of helping clean me as well!"

Tohru and Meisuke both sighed, Meisuke in irritation, Tohru in contentment.

...

"Hey, Tohru," Meisuke asked, "What do you want for dinner today?"

Tohru glanced up from her shoes as she tied them in preparation for work. Considering the question for a moment, Tohru answered, "Eh, anything's fine." After pausing to think further, Tohru began to smile as she asked, "Hey, what about some in-

"Tohru." Meisuke interrupted. "Whatever comes next had better not involve instant noodles."

Smiling sheepishly, Tohru avoided eye contact with the dragoness as she instead asked, "What would you want to eat, Meisuke?"

Taken aback by the question, Meisuke mentally listed what they had eaten for lunch over the last few days before asking, "Tohru... you serve Omelet Rice where you work, right?"

Nodding as she furrowed her brow in confusion, Tohru answered, "Yeah-it's a maid cafe, after all. Why?"

Meisuke straightened her tie before extended her hand to the young woman. "Well, if you're always serving omurice," Meisuke said, "Wouldn't it be nice to have some omurice served to you instead?"

Surprised by Meisuke's question and consideration, Tohru eagerly nodded as she enthused, "Wow, Meisuke, thanks! That sounds like it'd be really good!"

Giving Tohru a thumbs up as the young woman finished her preparations, Meisuke said, "Omurice it is, then! Just remember, Tohru: work hard today so you can build up a big appetite! Got it?"

With a nod and a salute as she walked out the door, Tohru answered, "Yes, ma'am!"

...

Meisuke glared at the ingredients she arranged before her. While everything she had available to her was passable, not even the greatest of chefs could do anything special with them. She wanted to make something that would be just as 'really good' as Tohru expected, but if she used this stuff to try...

"Yeah," the dragoness confirmed aloud, "I'm just not feeling it."

As she pondered her available options, a knock came from the front door and, deciding that it would be a welcome distraction from her fruitless task, Meisuke went to answer it.

Opening the door, Meisuke was greeted by a strange sight. Shouta stood on her doorstep, a serious expression on his face as usual; however, rather than his wizardly robes, he wore a long purple tunic with ornate golden stitching. The garment stopped just above a pair of golden silk slippers worn over tall white stockings, and a golden cape was thrown over his shoulders. Around his neck he wore a golden gorget and on his brow he bore an ornate golden crown with elaborate carvings of dragons in conflict etched upon it.

"Greetings once more to you and the Kobayashi household, Meisuke!" The small dragon declared, puffing his chest out proudly. "I have amended my outfit to be more suitable to this modern age and, having been in the vicinity of your home, decided to pay homage and offer my greetings as well beseech you for a glass of this human 'coffee' liquid to which such great properties have I heard attributed!"

Meisuke sighed in resignation, unsurprised but still disappointed by Shouta's antics. Noticing Meisuke's exasperation, the small dragon asked, "Is something the matter, goodly Meisuke?"

As she turned to make the coffee, allowing Shouta into the apartment, Meisuke answered, "You're still dressed like a fossil... and you talk like one, too."

Shouta flinched in shock at this denouncement, crying, "Verily!?"

***End of Chapter 9***

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, everyone... and the missed deadline, too...

Some stuff happened (a lot of stuff, actually), and there's still a lot of stuff I have to do. I want to try and keep things up, and I should have another chapter of this out by next week, but I'll be taking a break from "It's Not My Fault We're Together!" until the next chapter of WataMote comes out. Sorry again...