[His tiny coon hands cling desperately to the bagel, but he's no match for Shino's strength (and the moldy bagel's tendency to crumble). He's also kept enough of his wits about him not to bite his own friend, so...just gonna reach sadly for the food being kept out of his reach, making a sad cute coon noise in the process before slumping into Shino's embrace.]
[ Shino is immune to cute when it's also gross as gross. He manages to kind of roll them both over the lip of the garbage container, dropping down on the far side with smears of something across his clothing. He hates it, but he also ignores it for now. ]
Fresh ones are better! Mold might not kill you, but it's still bad for your stomach, so don't eat weird things!
[ Murasame, who definitely ate the part of the bagel he wrested away from Xie Lian, mutters from the side of the dumpster: ]
Oops.
[ Enough said for Shino to whip his head around and call out at his bird half, while continuing to clutch Xie Lian to his chest like he's afraid his raccoon friend will fight free to go on another garbage consuming spree. He believes it. There's zero reason not to, okay?! ]
Murasame, you stop eating weird things too! Come on, we're going to the grocery. [ And to Xie Lian: ] Just hold on, okay?
[ Because he knows one near here, just down the block, and it has fresh pastry, so it should have bagels too? He doesn't even march, he picks up to a run with Murasame hurriedly winging after him, almost hitting the doors as they pull open a beat slower than he moves. ]
Bagels, bagels, where are the bagels... is there anything else you want, too?
[He's not gross, this scent is just...an acquired taste! Like a finely aged wine!
There is probably a bit of mushy moldy something sticking to his furry back but let's not talk about that. No! What's more important is the fact that Xie Lian is resignedly obediently sitting tight in Shino's clutches, watching the scenery fly by as they rush down to the grocery store.]
Is it really alright to-- [oh never mind they're inside already okay
Oh well, surely there's nothing wrong with a dirty raccoon in a grocery store, right? He doesn't think much past that because as soon as they're inside he finds himself facing rows upon rows of foods of all kinds.....his little raccoon mouth gapes open for a moment, nose twitching at the inundation of (fresh) new scents, before managing to say] Everything.
[ He's kind of impressed in a whole, should he have grabbed a cart? But then he'd have to steal the cart, he can't carry that much on his own with a raccoon trying to run off to jump into garbage without so much as a pause.
Murasame is also clinging to his shoulder and tucked in against his neck as Shino curves back around, tucks Xie Lian against his chest with just one arm now, and picks up a basket. That much he can carry along with Xie Lian in "feed me" mode, right? He's gonna be able to do it!
Then he beelines back to the bakery area. All the was-fresh-earlier stuff, not the "who knows how long its been in that bag." ]
Everything's outside of our pockets unless you're planning on asking Shi Qingxuan to help me recover my bank account, since you won't be.
[ He says this pragmatically, because a: he assumes Xie Lian is aware he and Shi Qingxuan share plenty of platonic attention, and plenty of not-remotely-platonic affection, and b: he knows Xie Lian doesn't, but if he honestly wanted everything and it was a real need Shino would run himself broke... he gets hunger. He really does. And he thinks Xie Lian deserves all of whatever he wants, since not once has he heard a truly selfish anything out of him. That's definitely not a normal thing for gods or demons, in his experience. Everyone has at least some things that they want... so today it's food.
However, now they have one (1) basket, and he has them by the bagels in their case and there are turnovers, bearclaws, next one over is pies with meat and little meats in pastry, also, randomly, a thing of bananas. ]
[This is 100% a case of Xie Lian's tiny raccoon eyes being several times larger than his stomach. Does that change this situation at all, though? No, not really.
While no longer struggling to escape, there's still some wriggling going on as he tries to point at things with those little arms of his. Like those meat pastry pie things! And the bananas? And oh hey look they've got individual slices of cake and this extremely colorfully decorated one sure looks enticing...]
There's so much to choose from! Are you hungry? Is Murasame? That sign says bearclaws but I don't see any bears—
[ You'd think Shino would understand that, and yet...
The stream of questions gets distracted answers as he heads for the meat pastry pies, looking for the weird paper used to grab them out and plucking one up in one hand. He has to balance Xie Lian against the hip he doesn't have much of to gather two in his free hand, thus not as securely holding his raccoon friend as before. ]
I can always eat, Murasame can too, and I don't think it's meant to be literal, don't you have food named after things that don't contain those things? Here there's stuff like hot dogs and hamburgers. Hot dogs have no dog in them, hamburgers have no pig!
There's a very short pause before he catches sight of something shiny out of the corner of his eye and, with Shino's grip loosened, takes advantage of this moment to wriggle out and start scurrying down another aisle. Goodbye! Farewell! He'll be found trying to climb into the display case at the fish section.]
[ He's lagging behind with a bear claw flat out thrown without a bag into his hand basket, bolting toward the display case and not able to get there faster while dodging the other patrons and displays than Xie Lian making it into the display case, with the ice and raw fish and crab and everything else.
The basket's left on the floor as he has the counter employee telling him to handle his child, which he can barely get out a word on since he's instead scooping up an armful of now fishy-trash smelling raccoon and some of the ice packed around the fish he'd been aiming for. Whatever one Xie Lian managed to get his grubby paws on is likewise picked up and all but tossed at the person working the counter, Shino hurriedly saying he'll but that, thank you, sorry for him, this isn't how he usually is: all this and a quick paper wrapped moment and toss back has him dropping fish into basket, taking basket to the checkout area, and hugging Xie Lian like he's afraid he's going to slip away.
Which he is.
But look, now he has a standard of behaviour to rely on. ]
We'll get back to... okay, to my place, I'll get you cleaned up and feed you, okay? Just behave until then! We've got the fish and the bagels and that bear claw and some other stuff.
[The fish your raccoon son has picked for you today is.....a monkfish. Good luck with that.
Xie Lian makes grabby hands at the fish as it's pulled away, but continues his trend of wiggling around rather than outright struggling. He's a wiggly raccoon! He can't help it!
He has also, for the most part, deflated by the time they reach the checkout counter. Maybe he'll speak up on the way home, but for now he's busy staring forlornly at that strangely enchanting shopping bag he's clearly not allowed to grab. Did he just let out a sad raccoon noise? He might've made a sad raccoon noise.]
[ Shino doesn't even have time to be horrified by the head of the monkfish (or what lies inside that head), he's entirely too frazzled. Getting out of the store is enough of a juggle, but he manages, suffering through their stenchy state with a look on his face that says he's presently enduring hell on Prismatica.
The sad raccoon noise... hurts. Okay. It hurts. He doesn't like hearing sad animal noises! Which is why when they're out of the store he rustles into the bag and finds one of the bagels, offering it over awkwardly while continuing to clutch Xie Lian to his chest. His raccoon son, as labeled by the lady working the meat counter, is not allowed to get himself into more stink right now! ]
Your impulse control sucks right now, Lian.
[ This bagel is his apology, while his arm remains the promise that he's getting them to his place for a full bath.
Which doesn't take longer than a devouring of a bagel to reach, at least! Getting up the stairs and through the door into his once more lonely apartment is as it always is: unremarkable, with the one night light he bought on and sitting on the counter, a beacon of warmth in an otherwise cold space. ]
Bath first, then I'll cook dinner.
[ This said while offloading shoes with a kick at the door, and groceries with an awkward heft at the counter by the nightlight. He doesn't bother turning on any of the lights: he can see perfectly fine without them, so instead heads for the bathroom door. ]
There's a sound of what could possibly be construed as protest at the comment on his impulse control, but whatever Xie Lian may have been trying to express is muffled by the bagel he's stuck in his mouth. Raccoon instincts have him totally beaten today....
Regardless, he's perfectly well-behaved on the trip home, busy as he is with eating, and doesn't speak up again until his paws are empty—which coincidentally is around the same time bath time is announced.]
A bath? Er, I'm not that dirty, am I--no I suppose I am...Are you sure you don't want to just, leave me outside? I've probably gotten you dirty too, after everything, and I don't want to leave a mess in your bathroom too--
[Ruoye, meanwhile, has slipped silently off his neck and slithered onto Shino's arm instead. It is magic and therefore the only clean thing here.]
[ He let Xie Lian keep up his rambling, flicking his eyes to Ruoye and marching right inside the bathroom. What he first says is directed at Murasame, an it's simply his name: ]
Murasame.
[ But the two of them have their own language and understandings, and the intent is communicated with just that call. Murasame hops into the air, and he dissolves into golden white light, feathers and form flying toward Shino and striking in a pattern against his right arm. As the light fades and dims, his tattoo is all that remains; and with his elbow, he taps the light panel in the bathroom, flooding that space with its own light, too. ]
I'm dirty, you're dirty, bathrooms are for fixing dirty~
[ He makes it sing-song, and he smiles, mischievous but pleased, partly visible in the mirror over the sink. ]
We're taking a bath, okay! I'm really good at those. I've bathed my brother more times than I can count! ... When he's been a dog. It's a long story.
[ It's more a complicated story than a long one, but he brushes by it like it's nothing, kicking the door closed with his heel. The bathroom's got a smaller sitting area with a showerhead and drain, the stool next to the lion-footed tub. Shino likes the tub, if nothing else. He appreciates the styled feet, so different from anything he personally knows or would choose, really.
He finally sets Xie Lian down, politely, on the bench. That he reaches into the tub to start it filling, or that he nabs a series of bottles and sets them down on the currently still dry tiles of the shower area is practiced and confident; it also might indicate the shampoos and body washes he uses are all animal safe. (Most are in Lunatia. Shino still picks his that way on purpose.) ]
Do you want to smell like spices or like fresh vegetables?
[ Shino asks, the two shampoo bottles labels in the ways he described, only with greater degree of misleading artistry. In the meantime, he pulls down two folded towels from above the toilet, and hangs them over the bay by the filling tub. Then he sets to stripping with exactly zero fanfare, allowing Ruoye to choose where it wants to be, figuring it'd know better than he would. ]
[Why was his brother a dog! Do brothers often turn into dogs where he's from! That magical sword tattoo was very bright and Xie Lian finds himself blinking dazedly at the combination of that and the sudden bathroom light, little hands holding onto the arm carrying him much in the way you might press down on the safety bar in an amusement park ride.
Which might make it a tiny bit of a struggle to get him down onto that bench, but luckily he's calmed down enough to be obedient by now.]
.....Ah. Vegetables? [He likes vegetables! Also in the bright light of the bathroom...lights...he can actually see how dirty Shino's clothes are right now and manages to look very put-upon from his position as a racoon sitting cutely on this bench.] I'm sorry, I really don't know what's gotten into me today...I haven't caused too much trouble for you, have I?
[Ruoye! Is gonna float off and wait politely in a corner somewhere. It's a patient piece of fabric! It's fine.]
[ They approximately never turn into dogs where he's from, but look! Unless he's asked later, he's not revisiting that point, because he has a more important raccoon paradox in the form of Xie Lian at present. ]
Vegetables it is~
[ He picks out that bottle, then grabs the bin with the rest of his bathing supplies. And an extra bin, with all the bathing supplies for fur. No, he doesn't often have a use for them, but he is always prepared. Also somewhat hoping he'd have a use for them, one day.
As it is, he kneels next to Xie Lian, reaching out to run his hand over his head, stroking down. It's an unthought response, the kind of thing people do to him, and that he offers as reassurance. If Xie Lian had been human, he'd have done the same. ]
You've been greedy and impulsive, but you're the kind of trouble I lo... like very much.
[ Only shifting words at the last moment because love tends to freak Xie Lian out, and he just calmed down again. Is it obvious that he changed words? Probably, but Shino doesn't seem bothered, at least. Plus his teasing is also honest. No reason not to state it, when it doesn't matter what he was: he was still Xie Lian. ]
Let me soak you first?
[ He asks, reaching for the showerhead on its long neck, attached to the wall with a loop hanging below. ]
A good lather and then we can let it sit while I get damp too.
[Xie Lian is going to assume that bin of fur supplies is for your own Iris fur, Shino, and not whatever other purpose you could possibly have been saving them for.
Also that unexpected downward stroke makes him jolt for a second before leaning into it, a shiver running through his fur—whether from pets or from the barely-avoided l-word, we aren't going to say.
...Uh. Ahem.] —Alright! Bring on the soap! There's certainly a lot of hair to lather, that's for sure.
[ The purpose of dreaming he might one day, impossibly, have a dog?
... He dreams big... far too big.
The shiver under his hand registers, but mostly as a twitch, so he thinks nothing of it. Instead he sets to turning the water on, checking the temperature against his hand until it's warm but not hot. The right temperature for working into fur, and he sets to with a hum, making up his own nonsense song about scrubbing as his fingers work into fur alongside water, careful and gentle at Xie Lian's head, carefully prompting for each foreleg, thoroughly damping his paws and the fur of his arms and under his chin with a good natured scratching. He cups water into his hand to pour carefully over his muzzle, then over his ears, using his fingers to give a small massage to each ear as he carefully wets them down.
He's moved on to wetting down Lian's back, fingers working his fur as he goes to get down deep, all the way to the base of his tail; then he works on that tail, lifting it with his hand and cheerfully and gently using fingers to massage more water in, leaving Xie Lian with a sad looking drowned tail by the end. He's not prompting him to stand yet to get his hind legs, instead running the showerhead back up his spine and shoulders, starting in on his sides with the same massaging motion.
He doesn't think about how it might be too much when he starts on Xie Lian's chest, leaning to one side and directing the showerhead with a hand around this way, while his free hand is coming around the other way, still massaging water in--let alone as he goes down lower, past the ribcage, heading logically along his belly and toward the back legs he's thus far neglected. ]
[Yes that's right, there's nothing to mind here, definitely not. The scrubdown is actually surprisingly soothing too, once he gets used to the touch, and Xie Lian finds his eyes slowly closing as he lets himself enjoy the soapy massage.
...Until Shino's hands start moving towards more personal areas, at least. He can handle the chest! Kind of! But once the touch passes his ribcage this raccoon is going to start Wiggling in an attempt to kind of nudge himself away without outright jumping out of his seat.]
Er, Shino, aren't you...maybe I could try washing the rest myself? This form has fingers, so surely it shouldn't be too hard, right? [Right!?]
[ Shino pauses with the words and the Wiggling, blinking because at first, he has no idea what Lian's talking about. When he does, he swiftly pulls his hands away. Oh, oh no, Lian doesn't like certain... anythings, and he's probably thinking Shino's trying to get... what's the word for that even? Trying to flirt?
... With a raccoon?!
No, that's stupid enough he shakes himself out of that thought. It's a lot simpler, really. Getting fully bathed by someone else is probably just weird. ]
Yeah, sorry, old habit. Let me know if you need more water on your belly.
[ Shino's at least wetted down while Lian has continued soaping up, so aside from cringing away so soap doesn't get into his eyes, he's actually laughing at the process. ]
Hey, hey, no fair! I don't need extra soap!
[ With the same grin, he's back with the showerhead, this time putting it right over Lian's coon head without reservations. ]
I'll get your back, you handle the rest~
[ He sing songs, continuing to sing a nonsense song of rinsing all the soap off, down the drain it goes, bye bye dirt and stuff, clean is better as we know~
All the while running water from the back of his coon head down his back proper, using nails to scritch and encourage the soap to come right out. He pauses when he's managed Lian's back and part of his sides, since... that's how backs work! To ask: ]
Want me to do your tail or do you want the showerhead back?
[ Mind, he's sitting there with his hair shampoo'd and twisted up on top of his head like some kind of goofy soft serve ice cream, because he's letting it sit. Like the bottles say to do. Does it really matter? He doesn't think so, but it also keeps his hair out of the way for now. ]
[The nonsense song is very silly and he'd laugh if that was a thing raccoons did (also if his head wasn't currently getting showered on). He tries to assist at first, little paws raising to try to get at his head and back, but one, i's difficult to reach his back from this position, and two....the scritches are nice. His eyes are closed for more reasons than just to prevent water from getting in them.
Xie Lian's coon ears prick up at the question though, and he once again shakes--mostly just his head this time, but he can't help if that shake happens to shake a little more than that.]
I think I can handle that much! Though I'm not sure how well I can handle the showerhead in this form. [Reaching out anyway? Maybe he can do it!]
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Fresh ones sound nice too, I suppose.....
[why does he sound so disappointed about this]
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Fresh ones are better! Mold might not kill you, but it's still bad for your stomach, so don't eat weird things!
[ Murasame, who definitely ate the part of the bagel he wrested away from Xie Lian, mutters from the side of the dumpster: ]
Oops.
[ Enough said for Shino to whip his head around and call out at his bird half, while continuing to clutch Xie Lian to his chest like he's afraid his raccoon friend will fight free to go on another garbage consuming spree. He believes it. There's zero reason not to, okay?! ]
Murasame, you stop eating weird things too! Come on, we're going to the grocery. [ And to Xie Lian: ] Just hold on, okay?
[ Because he knows one near here, just down the block, and it has fresh pastry, so it should have bagels too? He doesn't even march, he picks up to a run with Murasame hurriedly winging after him, almost hitting the doors as they pull open a beat slower than he moves. ]
Bagels, bagels, where are the bagels... is there anything else you want, too?
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There is probably a bit of mushy moldy something sticking to his furry back but let's not talk about that. No! What's more important is the fact that Xie Lian is
resignedlyobediently sitting tight in Shino's clutches, watching the scenery fly by as they rush down to the grocery store.]Is it really alright to-- [oh never mind they're inside already okay
Oh well, surely there's nothing wrong with a dirty raccoon in a grocery store, right? He doesn't think much past that because as soon as they're inside he finds himself facing rows upon rows of foods of all kinds.....his little raccoon mouth gapes open for a moment, nose twitching at the inundation of (fresh) new scents, before managing to say] Everything.
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[ He's kind of impressed in a whole, should he have grabbed a cart? But then he'd have to steal the cart, he can't carry that much on his own with a raccoon trying to run off to jump into garbage without so much as a pause.
Murasame is also clinging to his shoulder and tucked in against his neck as Shino curves back around, tucks Xie Lian against his chest with just one arm now, and picks up a basket. That much he can carry along with Xie Lian in "feed me" mode, right? He's gonna be able to do it!
Then he beelines back to the bakery area. All the was-fresh-earlier stuff, not the "who knows how long its been in that bag." ]
Everything's outside of our pockets unless you're planning on asking Shi Qingxuan to help me recover my bank account, since you won't be.
[ He says this pragmatically, because a: he assumes Xie Lian is aware he and Shi Qingxuan share plenty of platonic attention, and plenty of not-remotely-platonic affection, and b: he knows Xie Lian doesn't, but if he honestly wanted everything and it was a real need Shino would run himself broke... he gets hunger. He really does. And he thinks Xie Lian deserves all of whatever he wants, since not once has he heard a truly selfish anything out of him. That's definitely not a normal thing for gods or demons, in his experience. Everyone has at least some things that they want... so today it's food.
However, now they have one (1) basket, and he has them by the bagels in their case and there are turnovers, bearclaws, next one over is pies with meat and little meats in pastry, also, randomly, a thing of bananas. ]
Point and I'll grab.
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While no longer struggling to escape, there's still some wriggling going on as he tries to point at things with those little arms of his. Like those meat pastry pie things! And the bananas? And oh hey look they've got individual slices of cake and this extremely colorfully decorated one sure looks enticing...]
There's so much to choose from! Are you hungry? Is Murasame? That sign says bearclaws but I don't see any bears—
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The stream of questions gets distracted answers as he heads for the meat pastry pies, looking for the weird paper used to grab them out and plucking one up in one hand. He has to balance Xie Lian against the hip he doesn't have much of to gather two in his free hand, thus not as securely holding his raccoon friend as before. ]
I can always eat, Murasame can too, and I don't think it's meant to be literal, don't you have food named after things that don't contain those things? Here there's stuff like hot dogs and hamburgers. Hot dogs have no dog in them, hamburgers have no pig!
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There's a very short pause before he catches sight of something shiny out of the corner of his eye and, with Shino's grip loosened, takes advantage of this moment to wriggle out and start scurrying down another aisle. Goodbye! Farewell! He'll be found trying to climb into the display case at the fish section.]
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[ He's lagging behind with a bear claw flat out thrown without a bag into his hand basket, bolting toward the display case and not able to get there faster while dodging the other patrons and displays than Xie Lian making it into the display case, with the ice and raw fish and crab and everything else.
The basket's left on the floor as he has the counter employee telling him to handle his child, which he can barely get out a word on since he's instead scooping up an armful of now fishy-trash smelling raccoon and some of the ice packed around the fish he'd been aiming for. Whatever one Xie Lian managed to get his grubby paws on is likewise picked up and all but tossed at the person working the counter, Shino hurriedly saying he'll but that, thank you, sorry for him, this isn't how he usually is: all this and a quick paper wrapped moment and toss back has him dropping fish into basket, taking basket to the checkout area, and hugging Xie Lian like he's afraid he's going to slip away.
Which he is.
But look, now he has a standard of behaviour to rely on. ]
We'll get back to... okay, to my place, I'll get you cleaned up and feed you, okay? Just behave until then! We've got the fish and the bagels and that bear claw and some other stuff.
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Xie Lian makes grabby hands at the fish as it's pulled away, but continues his trend of wiggling around rather than outright struggling. He's a wiggly raccoon! He can't help it!
He has also, for the most part, deflated by the time they reach the checkout counter. Maybe he'll speak up on the way home, but for now he's busy staring forlornly at that strangely enchanting shopping bag he's clearly not allowed to grab. Did he just let out a sad raccoon noise? He might've made a sad raccoon noise.]
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The sad raccoon noise... hurts. Okay. It hurts. He doesn't like hearing sad animal noises! Which is why when they're out of the store he rustles into the bag and finds one of the bagels, offering it over awkwardly while continuing to clutch Xie Lian to his chest. His raccoon son, as labeled by the lady working the meat counter, is not allowed to get himself into more stink right now! ]
Your impulse control sucks right now, Lian.
[ This bagel is his apology, while his arm remains the promise that he's getting them to his place for a full bath.
Which doesn't take longer than a devouring of a bagel to reach, at least! Getting up the stairs and through the door into his once more lonely apartment is as it always is: unremarkable, with the one night light he bought on and sitting on the counter, a beacon of warmth in an otherwise cold space. ]
Bath first, then I'll cook dinner.
[ This said while offloading shoes with a kick at the door, and groceries with an awkward heft at the counter by the nightlight. He doesn't bother turning on any of the lights: he can see perfectly fine without them, so instead heads for the bathroom door. ]
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There's a sound of what could possibly be construed as protest at the comment on his impulse control, but whatever Xie Lian may have been trying to express is muffled by the bagel he's stuck in his mouth. Raccoon instincts have him totally beaten today....
Regardless, he's perfectly well-behaved on the trip home, busy as he is with eating, and doesn't speak up again until his paws are empty—which coincidentally is around the same time bath time is announced.]
A bath? Er, I'm not that dirty, am I--no I suppose I am...Are you sure you don't want to just, leave me outside? I've probably gotten you dirty too, after everything, and I don't want to leave a mess in your bathroom too--
[Ruoye, meanwhile, has slipped silently off his neck and slithered onto Shino's arm instead. It is magic and therefore the only clean thing here.]
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Murasame.
[ But the two of them have their own language and understandings, and the intent is communicated with just that call. Murasame hops into the air, and he dissolves into golden white light, feathers and form flying toward Shino and striking in a pattern against his right arm. As the light fades and dims, his tattoo is all that remains; and with his elbow, he taps the light panel in the bathroom, flooding that space with its own light, too. ]
I'm dirty, you're dirty, bathrooms are for fixing dirty~
[ He makes it sing-song, and he smiles, mischievous but pleased, partly visible in the mirror over the sink. ]
We're taking a bath, okay! I'm really good at those. I've bathed my brother more times than I can count! ... When he's been a dog. It's a long story.
[ It's more a complicated story than a long one, but he brushes by it like it's nothing, kicking the door closed with his heel. The bathroom's got a smaller sitting area with a showerhead and drain, the stool next to the lion-footed tub. Shino likes the tub, if nothing else. He appreciates the styled feet, so different from anything he personally knows or would choose, really.
He finally sets Xie Lian down, politely, on the bench. That he reaches into the tub to start it filling, or that he nabs a series of bottles and sets them down on the currently still dry tiles of the shower area is practiced and confident; it also might indicate the shampoos and body washes he uses are all animal safe. (Most are in Lunatia. Shino still picks his that way on purpose.) ]
Do you want to smell like spices or like fresh vegetables?
[ Shino asks, the two shampoo bottles labels in the ways he described, only with greater degree of misleading artistry. In the meantime, he pulls down two folded towels from above the toilet, and hangs them over the bay by the filling tub. Then he sets to stripping with exactly zero fanfare, allowing Ruoye to choose where it wants to be, figuring it'd know better than he would. ]
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Which might make it a tiny bit of a struggle to get him down onto that bench, but luckily he's calmed down enough to be obedient by now.]
.....Ah. Vegetables? [He likes vegetables! Also in the bright light of the bathroom...lights...he can actually see how dirty Shino's clothes are right now and manages to look very put-upon from his position as a racoon sitting cutely on this bench.] I'm sorry, I really don't know what's gotten into me today...I haven't caused too much trouble for you, have I?
[Ruoye! Is gonna float off and wait politely in a corner somewhere. It's a patient piece of fabric! It's fine.]
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Vegetables it is~
[ He picks out that bottle, then grabs the bin with the rest of his bathing supplies. And an extra bin, with all the bathing supplies for fur. No, he doesn't often have a use for them, but he is always prepared. Also somewhat hoping he'd have a use for them, one day.
As it is, he kneels next to Xie Lian, reaching out to run his hand over his head, stroking down. It's an unthought response, the kind of thing people do to him, and that he offers as reassurance. If Xie Lian had been human, he'd have done the same. ]
You've been greedy and impulsive, but you're the kind of trouble I lo... like very much.
[ Only shifting words at the last moment because love tends to freak Xie Lian out, and he just calmed down again. Is it obvious that he changed words? Probably, but Shino doesn't seem bothered, at least. Plus his teasing is also honest. No reason not to state it, when it doesn't matter what he was: he was still Xie Lian. ]
Let me soak you first?
[ He asks, reaching for the showerhead on its long neck, attached to the wall with a loop hanging below. ]
A good lather and then we can let it sit while I get damp too.
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Also that unexpected downward stroke makes him jolt for a second before leaning into it, a shiver running through his fur—whether from pets or from the barely-avoided l-word, we aren't going to say.
...Uh. Ahem.] —Alright! Bring on the soap! There's certainly a lot of hair to lather, that's for sure.
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... He dreams big... far too big.
The shiver under his hand registers, but mostly as a twitch, so he thinks nothing of it. Instead he sets to turning the water on, checking the temperature against his hand until it's warm but not hot. The right temperature for working into fur, and he sets to with a hum, making up his own nonsense song about scrubbing as his fingers work into fur alongside water, careful and gentle at Xie Lian's head, carefully prompting for each foreleg, thoroughly damping his paws and the fur of his arms and under his chin with a good natured scratching. He cups water into his hand to pour carefully over his muzzle, then over his ears, using his fingers to give a small massage to each ear as he carefully wets them down.
He's moved on to wetting down Lian's back, fingers working his fur as he goes to get down deep, all the way to the base of his tail; then he works on that tail, lifting it with his hand and cheerfully and gently using fingers to massage more water in, leaving Xie Lian with a sad looking drowned tail by the end. He's not prompting him to stand yet to get his hind legs, instead running the showerhead back up his spine and shoulders, starting in on his sides with the same massaging motion.
He doesn't think about how it might be too much when he starts on Xie Lian's chest, leaning to one side and directing the showerhead with a hand around this way, while his free hand is coming around the other way, still massaging water in--let alone as he goes down lower, past the ribcage, heading logically along his belly and toward the back legs he's thus far neglected. ]
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...Until Shino's hands start moving towards more personal areas, at least. He can handle the chest! Kind of! But once the touch passes his ribcage this raccoon is going to start Wiggling in an attempt to kind of nudge himself away without outright jumping out of his seat.]
Er, Shino, aren't you...maybe I could try washing the rest myself? This form has fingers, so surely it shouldn't be too hard, right? [Right!?]
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... With a raccoon?!
No, that's stupid enough he shakes himself out of that thought. It's a lot simpler, really. Getting fully bathed by someone else is probably just weird. ]
Yeah, sorry, old habit. Let me know if you need more water on your belly.
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Right! Thank you, I...I'll make sure to ask if I need it! Yes.
[He's never tried washing this much fur before but surely he can scrub the rest of himself just fine, right? Right.
And when he's done he'll shake himself and get soapsuds all over Shino, because. Instinct.]
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Hey, hey, no fair! I don't need extra soap!
[ With the same grin, he's back with the showerhead, this time putting it right over Lian's coon head without reservations. ]
I'll get your back, you handle the rest~
[ He sing songs, continuing to sing a nonsense song of rinsing all the soap off, down the drain it goes, bye bye dirt and stuff, clean is better as we know~
All the while running water from the back of his coon head down his back proper, using nails to scritch and encourage the soap to come right out. He pauses when he's managed Lian's back and part of his sides, since... that's how backs work! To ask: ]
Want me to do your tail or do you want the showerhead back?
[ Mind, he's sitting there with his hair shampoo'd and twisted up on top of his head like some kind of goofy soft serve ice cream, because he's letting it sit. Like the bottles say to do. Does it really matter? He doesn't think so, but it also keeps his hair out of the way for now. ]
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Xie Lian's coon ears prick up at the question though, and he once again shakes--mostly just his head this time, but he can't help if that shake happens to shake a little more than that.]
I think I can handle that much! Though I'm not sure how well I can handle the showerhead in this form. [Reaching out anyway? Maybe he can do it!]
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[ Shino offers, but he does allow Xie Lian to try and take the showerhead first. ]