Context

Day 6

Verde woke up to yet another wonderful morning... alone in the giant bed. She thought that it was unseasonably warm for just this morning and decided to shower early. This was going to be a fun activity, he had a deep tub, but since he was never there for communal bathing, she taken to just dumping his shampoo into the tub in grandiose quantities and just giving herself some sort of hybrid bath/bubble bath. But the worst part was getting out. It was high enough that she had to use the human’s toilet that she could barely use to jump into the tub and had to push herself out, landing on the floor in various positions over the last few days.

At least I get to nearly swim in it... Verde thought to herself, popping herself into the tub. Dumping the shampoo, she started the bathtub, always rushing near the end of the tub until the initial cold water had finished pouring out.

After the initial chill, she hooved the drain so it would shut and the tub started to fill. Adding more shampoo, she sat on her flank, waiting for the tub to fill. Sighing, she wondered how it would be like for him to bath her and for her to bath him. His fingers might really work well for the purpose. She remembered the time he combed her mane and sighed, imagining his hands with soap suds on them, pressing hard on her coat, scratching around to be through. Starting to lick her lips, she raised her snout in the air, she closed her eyes, ignoring everything else except her own imagination.

She imagined the human she lived with roughly scrubbing her side, moving upwards to her neck, being more and more gentle the more and more he ascended. She imagined the feel of his ten fingers, softly massaging her neck, as he slowly stopped and moved to her frank, starting with her cutie mark. That was until the sound of water pouring over the tub pulled her from her fantasy and back to reality.

Looking around, she saw that the tub was overflowing. Moving carefully, as to not splash any more water, she got to the faucet and turned it off. Trying to move the little drain down at the bottom of the tub with her hooves, she found that it was too heavy, and it kept slipping of where she could grip onto with her hooves.

Seeing little recourse, she dunked her head into the water, eyes closed and started prodding the bottom of the tub with her snout, trying to find the contraption. She was going to have to bite it.

Coming back up for air, she dove again, this time, finding it in a few seconds. Biting and pulling hard, she used her hooves to twist the contraption to lock open, and heard the rush of water going down the drain. Popping her head back up, she let the tub lose a quarter of it’s water before hooving the drain to stop it again.

Now began the least pleasant part of the bath, she violently moved about in the tub, rolling over and over again, trying to get the shampoo/bubbles worked into her coat and mane. Occasionally, she uncontrollable slid around, but without her mate assisting her, this was always an endeavor to finish.

Finishing, snouted around for the drain again and pulled it, once more draining the water, only she let it drain all the way this time. Next, she started the water and pulled the top button on the faucet. The shower started up, spraying her at an awkward angle. Simply sitting in the artificial rain, she let the water rinse her off, as she slowly breathed in and out. After what felt like enough time had passed, she turned off the water and began the worst part of the entire affair, getting out.

She could just jump out, but her hooves were always slippery and made landing somthing that she could not control. Instead, she grab onto the ledge of the tub with her front legs and tried to lift her own rear legs. This time it worked. Reaching for the bottom, she could see the huge puddle where she accidentally left the bath go on for too long. Carefully walking through the water, she reached the towels, and got two. One for her, one for the floor.

After placing the first towle on the floor, she laid the other towle on a dry spot and started rolling around it. Frankly, if anyone was watching, Verde would have been embarrassed by this. Communal bathing was an almost universal custom among ponies. We help each other stay clean because to ignore the hygiene of a fellow pony is tantamount to disrespecting their right to have harmony in their lives , Verde remembering what her mother used to say.

Finishing up, she took the towel over to the remnants of the puddle and placed it on the floor to take care of it. Letting herself out of the bathroom, she saw Jason sitting relaxed on the couch, holding something.

“Good morning!” Verde greeted Jason, hoping that she would not get on his disinterested side. Looking closer at what Jason was holding, she saw a crumpled piece of paper.

“Morning, I’ve got to say, for having no hands, you’re pretty good at this.” Jason remarked.

“Good at what?” inquired Verde when she saw it. It wasn't just a crumpled sheet of paper, it was several, a few on the coffee table, and one on his hand. It was the stuff she drew yesterday.

Mortified, she threw them out because she did not want him knowing that she was drawing him, mere moments before yesterday’s unfortunate... accident.

“You draw well from memory, too bad you threw these out. Didn't think I wouldn't notice a waste bin full of crumpled up paper?” Jason smiled, putting the drawing down.

Verde didn't know what to say. Was he going to be upset that she snooped around his desk, or was he upset that she drew that, the moment before her hoof forcefully introduced themselves to his family’s gems? She did not need angry Jason this early in the morning. Verde’s face started to cringe.

“You look upset, You know I like these right?” Jason quietly spoke, smiling as sincerely as he could. Verde was surprised.

“You’re not upset?” she asked.

“No, not at the drawing, at the ball stomping, yeah, gonna be upset, but this is pretty good.” Jason remarked, laying the drawing on the table.

“Oh, I was kinda depressed yesterday and I needed to do something to get my mind off of um... yeah” she trailed off.

“I don’t know ponies too well, but do you have a need to do what your bumper sticker tells you to do?” Jason asked with a slight laugh.

“Bumper sticker?” Verde asked, genuinely confused.

“Your cutie mark” he answered, pointing at her flank.

“Not really, but most of the time, it symbolizes what we most enjoy doing, what we were meant to do...” Verde trailed off.

She remembered that she wanted a cutie mark that was going to tell her she was going to be a flyer like her dad when she was very young, she remembered her mom having to drop the bomb on her. Yeah there were hot air balloons, but she felt unsafe being somewhere she could not freely move around.

“Meant? So you guys don’t get to choose what you want to be or what you like?” Jason inquired

“There are plenty of ponies who do jobs thats outside of their marks. But most of us strive to do what we enjoy the most, which mostly is what our cutie mark says. A lot of us work really hard at making what we love our jobs, though there are a few marks you can’t really make a income with...” Verde explained, taking a moment to think.

“Do humans have cutie marks? I've never seen yours...” Verde asked, trailing off incase he had shown it to her or its against human culture to show his.

“No, just like most every other sentient life for here, we don’t get assigned a job from birth” Jason said.

Verde looked away, cutie marks were always a way to break the ice with another pony, and she had difficulty even talking to Jason, except for today.

“Do you miss painting?” Jason asked her, Verde shook her head yes.

“I miss it very much.” Verde whispered, glancing downwards towards the dark grey carpet.

Getting up, Jason moved to the desk and opened one of the drawers.

“How many bits would you need to pick up where you left off?” he asked her.

“Oh no, you don’t have to Jason” Verde tried to assure Jason.

“We have been both stressed the last few days, here, take what, 38 bits and get yourself some supplies.” he said, grabbing the bits and walking back to the couch, dropping the bits on the coffee table.

This was incredible, a full 38 bits to start over. Verde’s eyes widened, looking at Jason, and back at the bits on the table.

“Are you sure? Couldn't you use them for something else?” she asked

“Yeah, I’m sure, though in about 8 days, I would like you to leave the house between 6pm to midnight, I have a friend coming over and I’d like to just do shit with him alone.” Jason requested.

“Oh yeah, I can do that. I have a friend in town who I can grab a bite with.” Verde said, still thinking of all the supplies she was going to get.

“Alright, its a deal.” Jason finished.